The gate that greets arrivals at the top
Hashikuraji Chumon (箸蔵寺中門, also written Hashikura-ji Chū-mon) is a single-bay wooden gate standing in front of the abbot's quarters at Hashikuraji in Ikeda-cho, Miyoshi City, Tokushima Prefecture, built in the early Meiji era between 1868 and 1882 and listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 28 October 2011. Its ridge runs east to west across the front of the compound.
Most people meet this gate before any other building at the temple. The Hashikurasan Ropeway climbs 342 metres from the valley floor and sets passengers down at the upper station beside the Hojo, the abbot's quarters, which puts the Chumon a short walk away. The temple's original main gate, the Niomon of 1880, lies far below on the old walking approach and is skipped entirely by anyone travelling on the cable.
Hashikuraji belongs to the Omuro branch of Shingon Buddhism and enshrines Konpira Daigongen as its principal image. Until the government separated Shinto from Buddhism in 1868, the great Konpira shrine across the water in Sanuki was administered by a Buddhist temple, and Hashikuraji was known as its inner sanctuary. Konpira became a Shinto shrine; Hashikuraji did not, and it still holds both traditions together. Visitors clapping at the honden and visitors carrying a pilgrim's stamp book pass each other on the same steps.
The buildings standing here today go back to a rebuilding campaign after a fire in 1826. Six of them received designation as Important Cultural Properties in 2004, the Hojo among them. The Chumon came later, part of a second wave of gate and ancillary construction in the Meiji period, and it was registered in 2011 alongside the Niomon, the Takatoro stone lantern and the Chozuya water pavilion.
A residence gate, built oversize
The Chumon is a yakuimon of one bay, with a gabled kirizuma roof laid in sangawara pantiles and short screening walls, sodebei, running out to either side. Its frontage measures 3.6 metres.
The yakuimon type is worth knowing, because it changes how the building reads. It is not a temple gate in the sense the Niomon is. A yakuimon carries two heavy main pillars with a pair of lighter posts set behind them, and the ridge sits forward of the midpoint rather than over the centre, so the roof throws a deeper cover over the entrance side. The form belongs to gates of residences and institutional compounds, samurai houses and physicians' establishments among them, and it appears at Buddhist temples chiefly where a gate leads into living quarters. That is exactly its role here, in front of a Hojo whose front measures 41.9 metres.
The framing repays attention. The main pillars are gohira, squared off to an oblong section rather than left round. They are locked together by a kabuki tie beam and by a lintel cut in the curved profile of a koryo, a beam whose gentle arc is standard in Japanese religious carpentry. Four transverse obari beams run across the gate, each carrying a daito hijiki above it, a broad bearing block with a bracket arm, and these in turn support the purlins and the beams above. Eaves are hitonoki sodaruki: a single tier of rafters spaced well apart, a restrained treatment beside the doubled, closely packed rafters used on the Niomon.
Two details lift the gate above the ordinary. In each gable a koryo beam is coupled with a taiheizuka, the swelling vase-shaped strut that carries the ridge. And the whole soffit is finished with a gotenjo, a coffered ceiling of the sort normally reserved for the interior of a hall. Very few gates of this type are ceiled at all. The registration file sums the effect up in a phrase about scale and bearing: the building is unusually large for a yakuimon, and it looks it.
Registration was granted under the criterion of contribution to the historic landscape of the country, the same ground cited for the other three Meiji-era structures at the temple.
Beyond the gate
Pass through and the Hojo stands ahead, long and low under a hipped gable roof with a karahafu undulating gable over the entrance porch. It dates from about 1856 and holds the temple office and the stamp desk. A lacquered black image of Kukai sits deep behind the front entrance, out of public view.
To the right the ground steps up toward the Gomado, where fire rituals have been performed morning and evening without a break for as long as the temple has records, at hours reported locally as 6:30 and 18:00. In front of it stands a pair of stone lanterns given by the kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjuro in the closing years of the Edo period, with the names of seven of his sons cut into them.
The climb from the Hojo to the honden runs 278 steps. Each riser carries one character of the Heart Sutra, the sutra having exactly that many, and the flight is called the Hannya Shingyo Shokyodan. Reaching the sanctuary from the Chumon takes most people around half an hour with stops.
Practical notes. The ropeway runs at 8:00 to 17:15 from April through November and from 9:00 in the colder months, every fifteen minutes, taking about four minutes each way. A return ticket costs 1,700 yen for adults, 1,250 yen for junior and senior high school students and 850 yen for children. Entry to the temple grounds is free. The Chumon stands outdoors and can be seen at any hour by anyone who has walked up. Photographing the gate and the grounds is unrestricted; the honden interior is reserved for those with a settled devotion. Spring brings some four hundred cherry trees to the slope, and the temple's chopstick memorial service falls on 4 August.
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Q&A
- Where exactly is Hashikuraji Chumon, and how do I get there?
- It stands directly in front of the Hojo, the abbot's quarters, near the top of the temple's stone stairway. The simplest approach is the Hashikurasan Ropeway from the valley: JR Hashikura Station on the Dosan Line is five minutes on foot from the lower station, and the upper station is beside the Hojo. By car, the lower station is about seven minutes from the Ikawa-Ikeda interchange on the Tokushima Expressway.
- When was Hashikuraji Chumon built, and what protection does it have?
- The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it to the early Meiji era, giving a range of 1868 to 1882 rather than a single year. It was entered on the national register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 28 October 2011 under registration number 36-0103. Registration is a lighter form of protection than designation, which six older buildings at the temple received in 2004.
- What is a yakuimon, and why is Hashikuraji Chumon built as one?
- A yakuimon is a gate with two heavy main pillars, two lighter posts behind them and a ridge set forward of centre, so the roof overhangs the approach side. The type belongs to residential and institutional compounds rather than to temple precincts as such, and it is used here because the gate opens onto living and administrative quarters rather than onto a sanctuary.
- How does Hashikuraji Chumon differ from the Niomon at the same temple?
- They answer different purposes. The Niomon of 1880 is a two-storey Zen-style gate three bays wide, with bracketing packed between the columns and guardian figures in the side bays, and it opens the walking approach far down the slope. The Chumon is a single-bay yakuimon with a gabled roof and side walls, standing at the top before the abbot's quarters. Both were registered on the same day in 2011.
- Can I photograph Hashikuraji Chumon, and is there an admission fee?
- Photography of the gate and the grounds is unrestricted, and entry to the grounds is free. The only fare involved is the ropeway, at 1,700 yen return for adults. The temple asks that the honden interior be entered only by those with a settled devotion, and requests for candles there go through the attendant on duty.
Basic Information
| Name | Hashikuraji Chumon (箸蔵寺中門) |
|---|---|
| Location | 1006 Kuratani, Suzu, Ikeda-cho, Miyoshi City, Tokushima Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure); registration no. 36-0103 |
| Year Designated | Registered 28 October 2011 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Timber, tiled roof, frontage 3.6 metres, with screening walls to left and right |
| Owner | Hashikuraji (religious corporation) |
| Public Access | Standing outdoors in the grounds, viewable at all times and free of charge; ropeway fare applies for the ascent |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Hashikuraji Chumon (Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00009068
- Cultural Heritage Online, Hashikuraji Chumon
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/197208
- National Cultural Properties Database, Hashikuraji Hojo (Important Cultural Property)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/102/00003878
- Hashikurasan Ropeway, timetable
- https://www.shikoku-cable.co.jp/hashikurasan/timetable/
- Hashikurasan Ropeway, fares
- https://www.shikoku-cable.co.jp/hashikurasan/price/
- Hashikurasan Ropeway, access
- https://www.shikoku-cable.co.jp/hashikurasan/access/
- Awa Navi (Tokushima Prefecture tourism), Hashikuraji
- https://www.awanavi.jp/archives/spot/2781
- Oboke Iya Navi (Miyoshi City official tourism site), cultural and historical sites
- https://miyoshi-tourism.jp/spot/classification/culture/
Last verified: 2026.08.23