Kaimonzan Mangetsuji Temple Main Gate

A gate in a white plaster skirt

Kaimonzan Mangetsuji Temple Main Gate (海門山満月寺山門) is the two-storey entrance gate of Mangetsu-ji at Honkatata in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, built in 1812 in the late Edo period and entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on April 28, 2000. It is a timber gate with a tiled roof and a footprint of only 3 square metres, standing in the northwest corner of the precinct and facing west.

The style is known as ryugu-zukuri, after Ryugu-jo, the undersea palace of Japanese folk tales. The lower level is wrapped in a flared skirt of white shikkui plaster, called a hakamagoshi, and a timber upper storey sits on top. The effect is of a small pavilion rising from a white, bell-shaped base.

The upper storey measures two bays by one. Every bay on all four sides has a window of diamond lattice, and a Kōran balustrade runs round it, carried on a ring of brackets below.

The frame for the view

The Kaimonzan Mangetsuji Temple Main Gate was registered as a building that contributes to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out its details, the balustrade and the bracket ring in particular, and the fact that it has no doors, so that the Ukimido can be seen straight ahead to the east.

The missing doors seem deliberate. Anyone entering the temple sees the lake hall first through the gate's opening. The gate is less a barrier than a picture frame for the lake.

Built in 1812, the gate is more than 120 years older than the present Ukimido, which dates from 1937. The hall you see through it is the second in modern times; the gate was already facing this way long before it went up.

What to look at

As you approach, look first at the curve of the plaster skirt. The white surface spreads outward toward the ground. It is what gives such a small gate its sense of weight.

Then look up at the diamond-lattice windows. Because the same window fills every bay on all four sides, the upper storey looks the same from any direction. The dark timber of the balustrade and its brackets stands out sharply against the white base.

Finally stand in the centre of the opening and face east. The lake and the Ukimido sit inside the frame, one of the best-known views at the temple. A stone inscribed with a haiku by the poet Awano Seiho stands near the gate.

Visiting the Main Gate

The Kaimonzan Mangetsuji Temple Main Gate is the temple's entrance, so every visitor passes through it. There is no indication that the upper storey is open to visitors. The exterior, and the view of the Ukimido through the gate, can be enjoyed freely during opening hours.

For a full photograph, step back outside and look at it from the west. Directions, opening hours and fees are on the Kaimonzan Mangetsuji Temple page.