Tairyuji Temple

What Tairyuji Temple Is

Tairyuji Temple is a Koyasan Shingon school temple set near the summit of Mount Tairyuji in Kamo-cho, Anan City, Tokushima Prefecture, founded in the tradition that Kobo Daishi Kukai practised the Morning Star meditation here in 793, and nine of its buildings became Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2013. Its mountain name is Shashinzan, its temple name Jojuin, and its principal image is Kokuzo Bosatsu, the bodhisattva of boundless memory and wisdom. It is Temple 21 on the Shikoku pilgrimage circuit.

The halls stand at roughly 600 metres above sea level among cedars and cypresses said to be several centuries old. That setting earned Tairyuji Temple the old epithet "the Koya of the west", a comparison with Mount Koya, the headquarters of the school. Pilgrims who walked up gave the climb a nickname of its own: third in the trio of hardest ascents on the Tokushima leg, after Shosanji and Kakurinji.

Kukai on the Rock, and the Centuries After

Temple tradition places Kukai here in 793, at nineteen, seated for a hundred days on Shashingatake, a rock outcrop southeast of the present precinct, reciting the Kokuzo Gumonji rite. In Sangoshiiki, written when he was twenty-four, he recorded climbing the great peak of Awa and keeping vigil at Cape Muroto in Tosa. Tairyuji Temple and Muroto are therefore read together as the two places where the young Kukai formed his thought.

Tradition adds that Fujiwara no Bunzan, provincial governor of Awa, laid out the compound on the order of Emperor Kanmu, after which successive lords and domain rulers supported the temple as a centre for the Gumonji practice. The founding date is not settled. The temple dates its history from Kukai's retreat of 793, while Anan City's account says Kobo Daishi is held to have founded it in 792. The two do not agree, and this article notes the gap rather than choosing between them.

A fire in 1894 destroyed the main priests' quarters and the goma hall. Five of the nine registered buildings are Meiji-era work from the rebuilding that followed. The oldest of the nine, the Nio Gate, dates from 1806; the newest, the bell tower gate, from 1903, so a span of about a century stands within one precinct.

Walking the Precinct

The grounds of Tairyuji Temple run east to west. From the Nio Gate at the eastern end to the Founder's Image Hall at the western end is about 430 metres in a straight line. Walkers coming up the old path pass first through the Nio Gate, which faces east.

Heading west, the hexagonal scripture repository stands on the eastern side of the grounds facing west, and beyond it the goma hall faces south. The goma hall abuts the western side of the main priests' quarters, a large building combining an abbot's hall and a kitchen-residence wing.

From there a flight of stone steps climbs to the main hall. The bell tower gate stands partway up, facing east; its lower storey has no doors, so visitors walk straight through beneath the hanging bell. At the top, on the western side of the grounds, the main hall faces south. The two-storied pagoda occupies rising ground just to its north, and further northwest the Daishi Hall and, west of it, the Founder's Image Hall both face east.

Southeast of the precinct lies Shashingatake, about fifteen minutes from the ropeway summit station. On the rock sits a statue of Kukai in the Gumonji practice, erected in 1992 to mark the opening of the ropeway. It faces east, the temple explains, towards the morning star understood as a manifestation of Kokuzo Bosatsu.

The Nine Registered Buildings

The nine buildings of Tairyuji Temple were entered in the register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 21 June 2013, under registration numbers 36-0106 to 36-0114. All nine were registered under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the nation, and all nine are roofed in copper sheet, which gives the scattered halls a single common tone.

• Main hall, 1852, building area 180 square metres
• Daishi Hall, 1877, building area 108 square metres
• Founder's Image Hall, 1878, building area 16 square metres
• Two-storied pagoda, 1861, building area 40 square metres
• Hexagonal scripture repository, 1856, building area 35 square metres
• Goma hall, 1901, building area 111 square metres
• Main priests' quarters, 1895, building area 944 square metres
• Bell tower gate, 1903, frontage 5.3 metres
• Nio Gate, 1806, frontage 7.7 metres

The range in scale is wide, from 16 square metres to 944. Each building's own case is set out on its own page. What the nine share, and what the registration recognises, is that a full set of halls built between the late Edo period and the end of Meiji survived intact on a small shelf of level ground high on a mountain.

Getting There by Ropeway

Nearly everyone now reaches Tairyuji Temple by the Tairyuji Ropeway, operated by Shikoku Cable. The lower station, Washinosato, is at 76 Tano, Wajikigo, Naka-cho, Naka District, Tokushima Prefecture, attached to the Washinosato roadside station. Parking there is free. The temple advises drivers to enter the ropeway's telephone number, 0884-62-3100, into a car navigation system rather than the temple's own.

The line runs 2,775 metres, with a vertical rise of 422 metres between the two ends and a maximum clearance of 508 metres below the cable. There are only two towers, the longer span between them measuring 1,197 metres. Each cabin holds 101 passengers and the ride takes about 10 minutes, crossing the Nakagawa River, then the Tsurugi mountain range, with the Kii Channel and Tachibana Bay opening up near the top.

Fares are 2,600 yen return and 1,300 yen one way for adults; 1,950 yen return and 980 yen one way for junior and senior high school students; 1,300 yen return and 650 yen one way for elementary school children. One child below school age travels free with each ticket. The first cabin leaves at 8:00 a.m. and the last ascent is at 4:40 p.m., with departures every 20 minutes on the hour, 20 and 40. Intervals change when the line is busy.

The ropeway closes for a few whole days each year for mechanical and electrical inspection, and suspends service in strong wind. Since there is no easy alternative way up, check the operating status before setting out. The old pilgrim path is still walkable, but it is the climb that earned its reputation as one of the hardest on the circuit.

Practical Notes for a Visit

Tairyuji Temple publishes neither opening hours nor an admission charge for its grounds. In practice, the time available on the mountain is set by the ropeway's first and last cabins. The temple's telephone number is 0884-62-2021.

Two days in the year change what can be seen indoors. On 12 January, at the Hatsueshiki, the principal image in the main hall is unveiled and worshippers may enter the inner sanctuary to see it close up. On the twenty-first day of the third lunar month the mausoleum is opened for a service in memory of Kobo Daishi, and the temple says visitors may take part inside the hall. At the goma hall, the daily fire rite known as the Higoma continues year-round, with petitions arriving from across the country.

No general notice restricting photography in the grounds was found, but follow the temple's instructions inside the halls and during services. At 600 metres the weather turns quickly and the air is cooler than at the foot of the mountain. Rhododendron in spring, hydrangea in summer, maple in autumn and camellia in winter mark the turning of the year in the precinct.