Anyoin Temple Gate

The Gate at the Entrance to Anyoin

Anyoin Temple Gate (安養院門, An'yōin-mon) is the entrance gate of Anyoin, a sub-temple of Saikyoji in Sakamoto-honmachi, Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture; it was built in 1927 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2001. It stands on the north side of the plot and is the way into the grounds.

The gate is a Yakuimon under a Kirizuma-zukuri gabled roof laid with Sangawara-buki pantiles. It has one bay and a single doorway, 1.8 metres wide. Anyoin was rebuilt in the early Shōwa period with donations from the Osaka businessman Yamaguchi Gendō, and if you line up its nine registered buildings by date, Anyoin Temple Gate comes first.

Why Anyoin Temple Gate Was Registered for the Landscape

Only one of Anyoin's nine buildings was registered under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country, and it is this gate. Most of the others qualified as models of form. For a structure whose job is to present the temple to the street outside, a landscape criterion makes sense: the gate is part of what passers-by see.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the eaves and bracketing as plain, but notes that the carved ornament, known as eyō, is cut on a large scale and gives the gate a commanding presence. Restraint in the frame and generosity in the carving let a gate only 1.8 metres wide hold its own.

What to Look for at Anyoin Temple Gate

A yakuimon carries its roof on two main posts, which hold the doors, and two shorter rear posts set behind them. Start by finding those four posts; once you see how they relate, the logic of the gate is clear.

Then look at the carving. Eyō are the scrolling, leaf-like patterns cut into beam ends and other timbers, and their line and curl change from one era to the next. Here the builders kept the eaves and brackets simple and put their effort into these patterns, which is where the character of Anyoin Temple Gate lies.

Stand back and the gate reads as a plain, sturdy frame. Step closer and the bold carving takes over.

Seeing Anyoin Temple Gate

Because it sits on the boundary of the temple, the outer face of Anyoin Temple Gate is what most visitors will see, from the road in front of it. Anyoin publishes no visiting hours or fees, and it has not said whether visitors may pass through the gate. Pause outside and take in the gable end and the carving around the doorway.

Whether photography is allowed has not been published either. If you take pictures, choose a spot that does not block the road and ask the temple first. Directions to the temple are gathered on the page for Anyoin as a whole.