Shitennoji Temple Five-Story Pagoda

What the Shitennoji Temple Five-Story Pagoda Is

The Shitennoji Temple Five-Story Pagoda (四天王寺五重塔) is a steel-reinforced concrete pagoda of 1959 standing at the centre of the walled precinct of Shitennoji Temple in Tennoji Ward, Osaka City, and listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 29 June 2022. It stands about 37 metres tall on a footprint of 56 square metres, and was designed by the architectural historian Fujishima Gaijiro.

Five roofs are visible from outside, but the interior is divided into 6 levels linked by a spiral stair that runs to the top. That is why visitors can climb this pagoda, something almost never possible in an old timber one. Strengthening work was carried out in 2019.

Temple tradition holds that Prince Shotoku placed 6 grains of the Buddha's relics and 6 strands of his own hair inside the base of the central pillar, which is why the building is also called the pagoda that saves beings from the six realms.

Why the Pagoda Is Registered

This is the eighth pagoda to occupy the spot. The Muroto typhoon of 1934 brought the previous one down, a replacement went up in 1940, and the air raids of 1945 destroyed that in turn. The pagoda standing today belongs to the first Japanese project to reconstruct an ancient temple from excavation evidence, and that precedent is the reason for the listing.

Its silhouette follows the pagoda at Horyuji and the Asuka manner of the seventh century, then pushes back further, toward forms thought to predate even that. The target of the reconstruction was not the oldest surviving wooden pagoda in Japan but the vanished building behind it, a scholarly judgement made visible at full scale.

What to Look For

Before walking up to it, stand back and look at the proportions. The height of the Shitennoji Temple Five-Story Pagoda against the Golden Hall was worked out from the ratio between pagoda and hall at Horyuji, so the relationship between the two buildings is the first design decision, not an afterthought. From near the Middle Gate, looking north, the two line up.

Doors face north and south, but only the north one is normally open. On the south side, a painting of the Shaka triad and wooden images of the Four Heavenly Kings face the entrance. Those paintings, and the Buddhist images on the inner and outer wall faces, are the work of Yamashita Maki. Climbing the stair, the window openings shift level by level and the view over the precinct changes with them.

Visiting the Shitennoji Temple Five-Story Pagoda

The Shitennoji Temple Five-Story Pagoda is inside the paid central precinct, with tickets sold at the Nishijumon gate in the corridor: 500 yen for adults, 300 yen for high school students, free for younger pupils. The spiral stair inside is narrow, so sensible shoes help.

The upper roofs can be made out from outside the corridor, but seeing the finial and the lower storeys together needs the distance you can only get within the enclosure. The temple issues no blanket rule on photography, so follow the notices inside. The precinct is opened free on the 21st and 22nd of each month and during the equinox observances. Directions and general opening hours are on the Shitennoji Temple page.