Jizoji Temple Main Hall

The Main Hall of Pilgrimage Temple No. 5

Jizoji Temple Main Hall (地蔵寺本堂, Jizōji Hondō) is a Buddhist hall in Rakan, Itano Town, Itano District, Tokushima Prefecture, built in the Shotoku era (1711 to 1716) and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 26 January 2011. It houses the principal image of Jizoji, the fifth temple on the Shikoku pilgrimage.

It stands in the southwest of the grounds facing east, on your left after the Nio Gate, and it is the first hall pilgrims come to. The Daishi Hall faces it from the east, and the Fudo Hall is built against its north side.

The hall is three bays by three bays, with a footprint of 82 square metres. The roof is hip-and-gable (Irimoya-zukuri) in round-and-flat Hongawarabuki tiles, and a one-bay porch (Kōhai) projects from the front. At the back, a half-bay strip has been taken into the interior to make the hall a little deeper.

Inside the Hall, and Why It Was Registered

The front bay forms the outer sanctuary (Gejin), where worshippers can approach; behind it is the inner sanctuary (Naijin), with an altar platform set at the center rear. It is the standard arrangement of a pilgrimage temple main hall. The principal image of the Jizoji Temple Main Hall is an Enmei Jizo, which is said to hold inside it a Shogun Jizo about 5.5 centimeters tall, attributed to Kukai.

The pillars are square, and at the corners they carry bracket arms carved with scroll patterns (e-yo hijiki). In an otherwise plain hall, these corners are among the few places where the carvers were given room.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the Jizoji Temple Main Hall as a good example of a Shikoku pilgrimage temple main hall dating back to the early modern period, and registered it as a "model of form and design." Of the five registered buildings at Jizoji, only this hall and the Five Hundred Arhats Hall of 1922 were registered under that criterion.

Tradition says the temple was burned in the Tensho era (1573 to 1592), and the Main Hall belongs to the rebuilding of the Shotoku era. The Daishi Hall opposite is from the same years; together they were the core of the early eighteenth-century revival. Yet the Daishi Hall was given a cusped gable over its porch and a ceiling painted with celestial maidens, while the Main Hall stays with square pillars and carved corner brackets. Two halls of the same date, two very different levels of ornament.

What to Look For

Stand under the porch, look up at the tiled hip-and-gable roof, then find the carved bracket arms on the corner posts. The carving is shallow, so the patterns read best when light comes in at an angle. The hall faces east, and its front is sunlit in the morning.

Then turn around. The Daishi Hall faces you from the east, and the space between the two halls is the working heart of the temple. From the side of the Main Hall you can also see where the Fudo Hall joins its north wall.

Worship and Visiting

The Jizoji Temple Main Hall is an active pilgrimage hall. Worship takes place from beneath the front porch; stepping up into the outer or inner sanctuary is not part of an ordinary visit.

Photography in the grounds is generally accepted, but ask at the stamp office before photographing inside the hall or the principal image. Pilgrims often chant in rows in front of the porch, so choose a spot that does not interrupt them.