Enryakuji Temple Daishoin Garden Gate

What Is the Enryakuji Temple Daishoin Garden Gate?

The Enryakuji Temple Daishoin Garden Gate (延暦寺大書院庭門) is a small Taishō-period gate belonging to the Daishoin reception hall in the Tōdō precinct of Mount Hiei, Sakamoto Honmachi, Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture; built around 1919 in Akasaka, Tokyo, and moved here with the house in 1928, it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2001 (registration no. 25-0146).

The Daishoin was once part of Sannō-sō, the Murai family's villa in Akasaka, designed by Takeda Goichi. The Enryakuji Temple Daishoin Garden Gate leads into its garden. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, it stands exactly where it did before the move: halfway along the wall that runs out from behind the reception wing.

The gate links the entrance forecourt with the garden seen from the main reception room, the Kyokkō no Ma. It both divides and joins the formal space where guests arrive and the inner garden viewed from the tatami rooms.

Form and Why It Is Registered

The national record describes the Enryakuji Temple Daishoin Garden Gate as timber-built and copper-roofed, 2.3 metres wide. It is a one-bay, single-opening hira-karamon: a gate that presents its long side to the front, with the centre of the eaves lifted into the curve of a kara-hafu gable.

The eaves use widely spaced rafters with thin battens laid across them, and the roof is copper. The transom above the opening is worked in a flower-lattice pattern, and a carved kaerumata strut supports the ridge beam. The Agency describes the gate as delicate and flowing, small in scale but full of points of interest. Like the Daishoin, it was registered under the criterion of serving as a model of design.

That the gate was registered on the same day as the house suggests its value lies partly in completing the villa's arrangement. Seen together with the Daishoin, it shows how the layout of Sannō-sō was recreated on the mountain.

What to Look For

At 2.3 metres wide, the gate rewards close looking more than a wide view. Start with the flower-lattice transom, then the carving of the strut beneath the ridge, then the spacing of the rafters under the eaves.

Notice too how the garden changes from one side to the other: the forecourt leading to the entrance on one side, the garden framed from the Kyokkō no Ma on the other. Passing through the gate switches the direction of your view.

Visiting: Closed Along with the Daishoin

The gate stands within the Daishoin grounds and, like the house, is not normally open. The temple's Hiei Tanbou programme has used the Daishoin for meditation sessions and opened it as a special viewing, and those occasions may be your chance to see the gate. Check the official site for upcoming events.

There is no published photography policy; follow the guiding monk's instructions. Directions, hours and fees for the temple as a whole are on the Enryakuji page.