Negoroji Temple

Negoroji Temple

Negoroji Temple (根来寺) in Negoro, Iwade City, Wakayama Prefecture, is the head temple of the Shingi Shingon school; its tahoto pagoda, the Great Pagoda built between 1480 and 1547, was designated a National Treasure on November 22, 1952, and its Daishi Hall of 1391 and six Edo-period buildings, among them the Daidenpodo, the Komyo Shingonden and the Great Gate, are designated Important Cultural Properties (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Negoroji, also called Daidenpoin, is said to have been founded on Mount Koya by the monk Kakuban and moved here in 1288 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It became a centre of learning in the late 13th century and a great temple by the mid-16th century, but most of it was burned in 1585 when Hashiba (Toyotomi) Hideyoshi attacked Kii Province, and it was rebuilt in the Edo period.

The Designated Buildings

The Great Pagoda, said to be modelled on the Konpon Daito of Koyasan, is a five-bay tahoto that took sixty-seven years to build; it is the largest surviving tahoto and the only one of the great daito type. The Daishi Hall, three bays square under a pyramidal roof, survives with it from before the fires of 1585 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The six Edo-period buildings are the Daidenpodo, the Komyo Shingonden, the Great Gate of 1845, the Fudo Hall, the Gyoja Hall and the Shoten Hall of 1736; built by the Negoro carpenters with carpenters from Osaka and Echigo, they form the core of the revival of the head temple (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Each is described on its own page.

Visiting

According to the temple, it is open from 9:10 to 16:30 from April to October and from 9:10 to 16:00 from November to March; admission is 500 yen for adults (junior high school age and over) and free for children. In late October each year the Daishi Hall, the Great Pagoda and the Daidenpodo may be closed for ceremonies. The address is 2286 Negoro, Iwade City; tel. 0736-62-1144.