Buddhist Temples in Japan - Common Temple Features

Common Temple Features

• Butsuden or Butsu-dō (仏殿・仏堂) – lit. "Hall of Buddha".
  • A Zen temple's main hall. Seems to have two stories, but has in fact only one and measures either 3x3 or 5x5 bays.
  • Any building enshrining the statue of Buddha or of a bodhisattva and dedicated to prayer.
• chinjusha (鎮守社/鎮主社) – a small shrine built at a Buddhist temple and dedicated to its tutelary kami.
• chōzuya (手水舎) – see temizuya.
• chūmon (中門) – in a temple, the gate after the naindaimon connected to a kairō. See also mon.
• dō (堂) – Lit. hall. Suffix for the name of the buildings part of a temple. The prefix can be the name of a deity associated with it (e.g. Yakushi-dō, or Yakushi hall) or express the building's function within the temple's compound (e.g. hon-dō, or main hall). See also Butsu-dō, hō-dō, hon-dō, jiki-dō, kaisan-dō, kō-dō, kon-dō, kyō-dō, mandara-dō, miei-dō, mi-dō, sō-dō, Yakushi-dō and zen-dō.
• garan – see shichi-dō garan.
• hattō (法堂) – lit. "Dharma hall". A building dedicated to lectures by the chief priest on Buddhism's scriptures (the hō).
• hōjō (方丈) – the living quarters of the head priest of a Zen temple.
• Hokke-dō (法華堂) – lit. "Lotus Sūtra hall". In Tendai Buddhism, a hall whose layout allows walking around a statue for meditation. The purpose of walking is to concentrate on the Hokekyō and seek the ultimate truth.
• honbō (本坊) – residence of the jushoku, or head priest, of a temple.
• kairō (回廊・廻廊) – a long and roofed portico-like passage connecting two buildings.
• kaisan-dō (開山堂) – founder's hall, usually at a Zen temple. Building enshrining a statue, portrait or memorial tablet of the founder of either the temple or the sect it belongs to. Jōdo sect temples often call it miei-dō.
• karamon (唐門) – generic term for a gate with an arched roof. See also mon.
• karesansui (枯山水) – lit. dry landscape. A Japanese rock garden, often present in Zen temples, and sometimes found in temples of other sects too.
• katōmado (華頭窓) – a bell shaped window originally developed at Zen temples in China, but widely used by other Buddhist sects as well as in lay buildings.
• kon-dō (金堂) – lit. "golden hall", it is the main hall of a garan, housing the main object of worship. Unlike a butsuden, it is a true two-story building (although the second story may sometimes be missing) measuring 9x7 bays.
• konrō (軒廊) – covered corridor between two buildings
• korō or kurō (鼓楼) – tower housing a drum that marks the passing of time. It used to face the shōrō and lie next to the kō-dō, but now the drum is usually kept in the rōmon.
• kuin* (庫院) – kitchen/office of a Zen garan. A building hosting the galleys, the kitchen, and the offices of a temple. Usually situated in front and to the side of the butsuden, facing the sō-dō. Also called kuri.
• kuri (庫裏) – see kuin
• kyō-dō (経堂) – see kyōzō.
• kyōzō (経蔵) – lit. "scriptures deposit". Repository of sūtras and books about the temple's history. Also called kyō–dō.
• miei-dō (御影堂) – lit. "image hall". Building housing an image of the temple's founder, equivalent to a Zen sect's kaisan-dō.
• mi-dō (御堂) – a generic honorific term for a building which enshrines a sacred statue.
• Miroku Nyorai (弥勒如来) – Japanese name of Maitreya.
• mon (門) – a temple's gate, which can be named after its position (nandaimon: lit. "great southern gate"), its structure (nijūmon: "two storied gate"), a deity (Niōmon: lit. "Nio gate"), or its use (onarimon: lit. "imperial visit gate", a gate reserved to the Emperor). The same gate can therefore be described using more than one term. For example, a Niōmon can at the same time be a nijūmon.
• nandaimon (南大門) – the main southern gate of a temple, in particular that at Nara's Tōdai-ji. See also mon.
• nijūmon (二重門) – a two-storied gate with a roof surrounding the first floor. See also mon.
• Niōmon (仁王門 or 二王門) – a two-storied or high gate guarded by two wooden guardians called Niō. See also mon.
• noborirō (登廊) – a covered stairway at Nara's Hase-dera.
• pagoda – see stupa and tō.
• rōmon (楼門) - a high gate with two floors, only one of which has usable space, surrounded by a balcony and topped by a roof. Buddhist in origin, it is used also in Shinto shrines.
• sai-dō (斎堂) – the refectory at a Zen temple or monastery. See also jiki-dō.
• sandō （参道）- the approach leading from a torii to a shrine. The term is also used sometimes at Buddhist temples too.
• sanmon (三門 or 山門) – the gate in front of the butsuden. The name is short for Sangedatsumon (三解脱門?), lit. Gate of the three liberations. Its three openings (kūmon (空門?), musōmon (無相門?) and muganmon (無願門?)) symbolize the three gates to enlightenment. Entering, one can free himself from three passions (貪 ton, or greed, 瞋 shin, or hatred, and 癡 chi, or "foolishness"). See also mon. Its size depends on the temple's rank. (See photos.)
• sanrō (山廊) – small buildings at the ends of a two-storied Zen gate containing the stairs to the second story.
• sekitō (石塔) – a stone pagoda (stupa). See also tō
• shichidō garan (七堂伽藍) – a double compound term literally meaning "seven halls" (七堂) and "(temple) buildings" (伽藍). What is counted in the group of seven buildings, or shichidō, can vary greatly from temple to temple and from school to school. In practice, shichidō garan can also mean simply a large complex.
  • Nanto Rokushū and later non-Zen schools: The shichidō garan in this case includes a kon-dō, a tō, a kō-dō, a shōrō, a jiki-dō, a sōbō, and a kyōzō.
  • Zen schools: A Zen shichidō garan includes a butsuden or butsu-dō, a hattō, a ku'in, a sō-dō, a sanmon, a tōsu and a yokushitsu.
• shoin (書院) – originally a study and a place for lectures on the sutra within a temple, later the term came to mean just a study.
• shōrō (鐘楼) – a temple's bellfry, a building from which a bell is hung.
• sōbō (僧坊) – The monks' living quarters in a non-Zen garan
• sō-dō (僧堂) – Lit. "monk hall". A building dedicated to the practice of Zazen. It used to be dedicated to all kinds of activities, from eating to sleeping, centered on zazen.
• sōmon (総門) – the gate at the entrance of a temple. It precedes the bigger and more important sanmon. See also mon.
• sōrin (相輪) – a spire reaching up from the center of the roof of some temple halls, tiered like a pagoda.
• sotoba or sotōba (卒塔婆) – transliteration of the Sanskrit stupa.
  • A pagoda. Tower with an odd number of tiers (three, five, seven nine, or thirteen). See also stupa.
  • Strips of wood left behind tombs during annual ceremonies (tsuizen) symbolizing a stupa. The upper part is segmented like a pagoda and carries Sanskrit inscriptions, sutras, and the kaimyō (posthumous name) of the deceased.

In present day Japanese, sotoba usually has the latter meaning.

• stupa – in origin a vessel for Buddha's relics, later also a receptacle for scriptures and other relics. Its shape changed in the Far East under the influence of the Chinese watchtower to form tower-like structures like the Tōbuttō, the gorintō, the hōkyōintō, the sekitō, the tō, or the much simpler wooden stick-style sotoba.
• tatchū (塔頭 or 塔中)
  • In Zen temples, a building containing a pagoda enshrining the ashes of an important priest stands.
  • Later, it became a subsidiary temple or a minor temple depending from a larger one.
  • Finally, it became also subsidiary temple being the family temple (bodaiji) of an important family.
• tahōtō (多宝塔) – a two-storied pagoda with a ground floor having a dome-shaped ceiling and a square pent roof, a round second floor and square roofs.
• temizuya (手水舎) – a fountain near the entrance of a shrine and a temple where worshipers can cleanse their hands and mouths before worship.
• tesaki (手先) – Term used to count the roof-supporting brackets (tokyō (斗きょう)) projecting from a temple's wall, usually composed of two steps (futatesaki (二手先）)) or three (mitesaki 三津手先).
• tokyō (斗きょう) – see tesaki.
• torii (鳥居)- the iconic Shinto gate at the entrance of a sacred area, usually, but not always, a shrine. Shrines of various size can be found next to, or inside temples.
• tōrō (灯籠) – a lantern at a shrine or Buddhist temple. Some of its forms are influenced by the gorintō.
• -tō (塔)
  • A pagoda, and an evolution of the stupa. After reaching China, the stupa evolved into a tower with an odd number of tiers (three, five, seven, nine, thirteen), excepted the tahōtō, which has two.
  • The word is used together as a suffix of a numeral indicating the number of a pagoda's tiers (three tiers= san-jū-no-tō, five tiers= go-jū-no-tō, seven tiers = nana-jū-no-tō, etc.).
• tōsu or tōshi (東司) – a Zen monastery's toilet.
• Yakushi-dō (薬師堂) – a building that enshrines a statue of Yakushi Nyorai.*
• yokushitsu* (浴室) – a monastery's bathroom.
• zen-dō (禅堂) – lit. "hall of Zen". The building where monks practice zazen, and one of the main structures of a Zen garan.