Taku Seibyo Shrine

A Confucian Temple of 1708

The Taku Seibyo Shrine (多久聖廟, Taku Seibyō) is a temple to Confucius built in 1708 at Taku-machi, Taku City, Saga Prefecture, and designated an Important Cultural Property on January 23, 1933 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records the hall as 3 bays by 3, single-storey with a mokoshi pent roof, hip-and-gable roof in hongawara tiles, with a one-bay porch under a karahafu cusped gable, and a 2-by-1-bay inner sanctum attached behind. Its designation number is 00914 and it is owned by Taku City. The octagonal shrine cabinet inside, the seigan, is designated with it (1 cabinet); Taku City dates that addition to 1957.

The Heart of a Domain School

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Taku family, who ruled the small Taku fief, built the Seibyo as the spiritual centre of a school teaching Confucian learning and the martial arts, and most of the craftsmen and timber came from the village itself.

Taku City explains that Taku Shigefumi, the fourth lord, set great store by education and founded the academy later called Togen Shosha; as its symbol he completed in 1708 a temple enshrining Confucius and his four disciples, Yan Hui, Zengzi, Zisi and Mencius. The Agency for Cultural Affairs' historic-site record says work began in 1695.

The Taku Seibyo was also designated a national Historic Site in 1921 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Why It Was Designated

The Taku Seibyo Shrine was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1933. The Agency for Cultural Affairs praises its carving and painted decoration, done with Chinese architecture in mind, and calls it representative of Confucian temple architecture in Japan.

Taku City adds that it is said to be the third oldest Confucian temple in Japan, after those at the Ashikaga School and the Shizutani School, and the most splendid.

What to Look For

The hall takes the form of a Zen-style Buddhist hall of three bays with a pent roof. In a projecting chamber at the back stands an altar holding the seigan, an octagonal cabinet for the sacred image (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Taku City notes that the layout follows Chinese precedent, with hills behind to the north and the Gyokomon gate and a pond to the south. Phoenixes, qilin, elephants and dragons are carved on the hall, and the ceiling holds a coiled dragon painted by the fief's artist Mikuriya Kaen; one story says he left a single scale unpainted so the dragon would not fly away.

The Chinese pistache tree beside the Gyokomon recalls the tradition that Confucius's disciple Zigong planted one at his teacher's grave (Taku City).

Visiting and Getting There

According to Taku City, the Sekisai ceremony honouring Confucius is held in spring and autumn, and the interior of the hall is opened to the public after it. The ceremony is a Saga Prefecture Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property. Enquiries go to the Koshi no Sato foundation at Togen Shosha (0952-75-5112) or the Taku City Board of Education (0952-75-8022).

Take the Showa Bus toward Takeo from the north exit of Taku Station to Hon-Taku, then walk about 15 minutes; by car it is about 20 minutes from the Taku interchange (Taku City). The address is 1843-3 Taku-machi.