1. HOME
  2. Daishi-do Hall

Daishi-do Hall

Daishi-do Hall underwent a restoration as a part of large-scale renovation during the Heisei period (the work started on November 17, 2014 and was completed on December 31, 2018). Its roof was changed to pantile roofing in 2015.
The building with a hip roof has a "Shumidan"(a platform to place and enshrine a Buddhist statue)in the inner sanctuary near the back side, and this part is placed jutting out into the space under the eaves.
You can see a soil wall with a plaster finish on the back side of the building, 4 wooden double sliding lattice doors in front, and double sliding wood-paneled doors on the corners.
The kohai(a pent roof built over the stairs leading up to the building)is about 1.8 meters and it has gabled shed roof.
The square pillars with rounded corners and grooves running along either side are put on Izumi sandstone bases, and over the pillars, you can see the traditional temple construction, such as architraves sticking out from the pillars and "Nakazonae Kaerumata" which are the curved decorative wooden supports on top of the beam(the name "Kaerumata" literally means "open-legged frog" based on the shape of it).

The inner sanctuary's width and depth is about 5.4 meters, and the outer place of worship for the publicin front of that is about 1.8 meters deep.
Both sides of the inner sanctuary are also 1.8 meters width and used as a hallway and closets.

The statue of Kobo-daishi(Kukai)is installed inside of the Zushi placed in the innermost of the room.
This statue was also restored at the same time as the roof. It was separated into pieces, washed, and painted. This restoration was done by the master sculptor of Buddhist statues, Mr. Rinkan Eba.

Before the Goma-do Hall(where the Goma rites take place)was built in 2006, Gomadaki(the rite of burning wood sticks)had taken place inside of the Daishi-do Hall.
The coffered ceiling of the inner sanctuary was cleaned in recent years, and we found out that there were pictures were painted on each coffer, and each of them has a flower.*
Because of soot caused by Gomadaki rite covered the ceiling, and we didn’t realize that there had been pictures on there.
And interestingly, there are some patterns which can be considered to be crosses(the symbol of Christianity)among the paintings.

Buildings or halls of temples apart from the main hall are mostly built with a pyramidal-style roof(and this style is often used for relatively small buildings), but our Daishi-do Hall is built with a hip roof, and its frontage width is wider than the main hall itself. This building style, in contrast to the smaller and simpler style of other such temples, is considered to be pretty valuable because it shows people’s religious faith in worshipping Kobo-Daishi.

According to our temple’s tradition, the temple made a solicitation book for Daishi-do Hall in 1863. Also it is thought to have been built in the late Edo period due to the style of the building.

*"ikken ikka" is the word for the floral pattern painted on the coffer ceilings of shrines or temples, and it means that each painting for a coffer has a flower.