A Granite Pagoda That Carries No Date
The stone tower in the precincts of Jakushō-ji bears no inscription at all. No carved name, no era, no donor. Because of that silence, no one can say exactly when it was raised. What it does carry is its shape, and to anyone who reads stone monuments, the shape speaks plainly enough: this is work of the late Kamakura period, somewhere between 1275 and 1332.
It sits in Zaō, a small farming hamlet on the southeastern edge of Shiga Prefecture, in the town of Hino at the western foot of the Suzuka mountains. The temple that keeps it, Jakushō-ji, is modest, the kind of place a visitor could walk past without noticing. The pagoda is cut from granite. Measured from the base block to the top of the roof stone it stands about 1.25 meters, a height that excludes the finial, which is a later replacement and not part of the original tower.
The monument is a hōkyōintō. The name comes from the Hōkyōin dharani, the "Precious Casket Seal" incantation, a scripture that towers of this kind were built to enshrine or to honor. A hōkyōintō has a recognizable profile once you know it: a squared base, a cubic body stone above it, a heavy roof stone cut into steps, and four projections rising at the corners of that roof. Such pagodas were raised across medieval Japan as reliquaries and as memorial and votive monuments, often for the repose of the dead.
How a Stone Without Words Gets a Date
Jakushō-ji's pagoda was designated an Important Cultural Property on 23 March 1961. The designation rests not on any document but on the stone's own form, and the decisive evidence is in those corner projections.
On the roof stone they are called sumikazari, the corner ornaments, and here they take a particular form. Each is a single plain arc, undecorated, shaped a little like a horse's ear. They stand almost upright rather than flaring out, and their face lies flush with the surface of the eaves below, the two cut as one continuous plane. This is the point that matters. In later centuries the corner ornaments of hōkyōintō lean steadily outward and acquire carved decoration. The upright, flush, unornamented form seen here belongs to the older tradition, and it is this archaic quality that places the tower in the Kamakura age and makes it worth preserving.
The roof itself is stacked into steps, five above and two below, a crisp profile that has survived several centuries of weather.
Reading a date from such details is a careful business, and the cataloguers are honest about its limits. The tower is valued precisely because it keeps an early form alive, not because any inscription confirms it.
What to Look at When You Stand in Front of It
Begin with the body stone, the cube at the center of the tower. Each of its four faces holds a Buddha carved in low relief, set inside a recess shaped like a flame-edged halo. These are the four directional Buddhas, a standard scheme in which a Buddha is assigned to each compass direction. The detail to appreciate is that they are carved as figures at all. On a great many hōkyōintō the four Buddhas are reduced to single Sanskrit seed-syllables, a kind of shorthand. Here someone took the trouble to cut the bodies themselves.
Look next at the base. On each of its four sides a shallow panel has been cut, the foiled outline known as kōzama that Japanese stonemasons used to frame and lighten a heavy block. Inside each panel sits a lotus on three stems, the sankeiren motif, raised in relief.
Then look at the very top, and notice the mismatch. The finial does not quite belong to the rest. It was added later to complete a tower whose original crown had been lost, and its proportions sit slightly apart from the older granite beneath. Spotting that seam is part of reading the object honestly.
Local accounts hold that the pagoda has not always stood where it stands now. It is said to have been moved into the temple grounds in 1914, brought from a spot in front of the neighboring Kinpu Shrine when a prefectural road was being widened. The hamlet's name, Zaō, points back to Zaō Gongen, the mountain deity of Yoshino, and the temple is thought to have been founded by ascetics of the Shugendō tradition who carried that worship here from the Yoshino range. None of this is fixed by record, but it gives the quiet granite a longer story than its size suggests.
Around Hino
Hino rewards a slower visit. The town was one of the homes of the Ōmi merchants, the traders who fanned out across Japan from this corner of Shiga, and the warlord Gamō Ujisato was born here. Old merchant houses still line parts of the town, and the Ōmi Hino Merchant Museum lays out how those families built fortunes far from home.
The town's tutelary shrine, Umamioka Watamuki Shrine, lies a few kilometers from the station and is worth pairing with the pagoda. Its grand spring festival, the Hino Matsuri on 2 and 3 May, fills the streets with festival floats and is registered as a prefectural intangible folk cultural property. Hino also holds an unusual density of medieval stone monuments, and another nationally designated hōkyōintō stands at Hitsusa Shrine elsewhere in the town, so a single trip can take in more than one.
Getting to Jakushō-ji itself takes some planning. The nearest rail point is Hino Station on the Ohmi Railway, on the western edge of town, with the sights spread out to the east. From the station you can reach the area by local or community bus, or rent a bicycle near the station, but there is no convenient direct service to the temple, and a car is the easiest way to arrive. The pagoda stands right in front of the temple office. There is space to park, and visitors are asked to greet the temple before viewing.
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Q&A
- Can I see the pagoda freely?
- Yes. The tower stands in the open precincts of Jakushō-ji, directly in front of the temple office, and can be viewed at close range. As a courtesy it is best to greet the temple before looking, since the office faces the monument. There is room to park a car.
- If there is no inscription, how do we know it is from the Kamakura period?
- The dating comes from style rather than text. The corner ornaments on the roof stand nearly upright and are cut flush with the eaves, an older form that later gave way to outward-flaring, decorated projections. That archaic detail, together with the carving of the base and body, points to the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century.
- What are the figures carved on the central block?
- They are the four directional Buddhas, one to each face, each set in a halo-shaped recess. Many stone pagodas reduce these to single Sanskrit letters, so the fact that they are carved as full figures here is one of the tower's distinctions.
- Why does the top look slightly different from the rest?
- The finial is a later replacement. The original crown was lost at some point, and the piece now on top was added to complete the form, which is why its proportions do not match the older granite below. The quoted height of about 1.25 meters is measured only up to the roof stone, leaving the finial out.
- How do I reach Jakushō-ji by public transport?
- The closest station is Hino on the Ohmi Railway. From there you can take a local Ohmi bus toward Kitabatakeguchi, or a Hino community bus, and walk the remaining distance, or rent a bicycle near the station. Connections are infrequent and a car is much simpler, so check timetables before relying on the bus.
Basic Information
| Name | Jakushō-ji Hōkyōintō (Stone Hōkyōintō Pagoda of Jakushō-ji) |
|---|---|
| Location | Zaō, Hino-chō, Gamō-gun, Shiga Prefecture |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property (Structures), designated 23 March 1961 |
| Period | Late Kamakura period (1275–1332) |
| Form | Stone hōkyōintō, granite |
| Count | 1 tower |
| Height | About 1.25 m, measured from the base block to the roof stone (the finial is a later replacement) |
| Owner | Jakushō-ji |
| Access | From Hino Station (Ohmi Railway): local or community bus plus a short walk, or bicycle rental near the station; a car is the most practical option. The tower stands in front of the temple office, with parking available. |
References
- Database of National Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Jakushō-ji Hōkyōintō
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/102/1490
- Cultural Heritage Online (National Institutes for Cultural Heritage) — Jakushō-ji Hōkyōintō
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/200419
- Hino Town — Plan for the Preservation and Utilization of Cultural Properties (cultural property list)
- https://www.town.shiga-hino.lg.jp/cmsfiles/contents/0000008/8039/hino-bunkazaikeikaku_20.pdf
- Hino Tourism Association — Umamioka Watamuki Shrine and area guide
- https://hino-kanko.jp/sight/umamioka/
Last verified: 2026.06.03