Sensoji Temple Nitenmon Gate

A Gate from Sensoji's Lost Toshogu Shrine

The Sensoji Temple Nitenmon Gate (浅草寺二天門) is an eight-pillared gate of around 1649 in Asakusa, Taito Ward, Tokyo, and was designated an Important Cultural Property on November 29, 1946 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records an eight-pillared gate three bays wide with one passage, under a gabled roof of hongawara tiles; designation number 01086.

A Gate of the Former Toshogu Shrine

According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education, Sensoji lost its buildings to fire twice in the early Edo period, and in 1636 the Toshogu shrine in its precinct was moved to Momijiyama in Edo Castle. The Nitenmon Gate is said to be the attendants' gate of that Toshogu; it was first built in 1618, but the present gate is thought to date from around 1649.

When Shinto and Buddhism were separated in the early Meiji era, statues of two of the Four Heavenly Kings came from Tsurugaoka Hachimangu in place of the attendant figures, and the gate was renamed Nitenmon, the Gate of the Two Heavenly Kings (Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education). The present statues of Jikokuten and Zochoten were acquired by Sensoji in 1957 from the side wings of a mausoleum gate at Kan'eiji in Ueno.

Why It Is an Important Cultural Property

The Nitenmon Gate, an early Edo-period gate that survived both the Great Kanto Earthquake and the wartime air raids, was designated an Important Cultural Property on November 29, 1946 (Agency for Cultural Affairs; Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education). Repairs from 2007 to 2009 restored its two guardian statues to their original appearance.

Triple Ridges and Two Reds

The Nitenmon Gate has eight pillars around a single passage, three bays wide, under a gabled roof of hongawara tiles (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The Board of Education describes a weighty building of stout timbers, 8.13 metres wide. Ceilings shaped like small gabled roofs over the front and back bays make it look as if it had three ridges, a mitsumune form common in buildings linked to the Tokugawa shogunate, such as the main gate of the former Taitokuin mausoleum of 1632.

The whole gate is red, but the posts and frame are lacquered a dark iron-oxide red while the brackets and eaves are painted a bright orange vermilion (Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education).

What to Look For

Look up at the ceilings to see the triple-ridge form, and compare the dark red lacquer of the frame with the orange vermilion of the brackets (Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education). The statues of Jikokuten and Zochoten are Tokyo-designated Tangible Cultural Properties (sculpture, designated in 1963).

Visiting

Directions and access to the temple grounds are on the Sensoji Temple page.