Chūson-ji Konjikidō

Every surface of this small hall — walls, doors, eaves, railings, even the floor — is lacquered and covered in gold leaf, and inside, beneath the altars, lie the mummified remains of the lords who ruled northern Japan in the 12th century. The Konjikidō, or Golden Hall, of Chūson-ji in Hiraizumi is one of the most precious buildings of Japan's Heian period; together with the Phoenix Hall of Byōdō-in, it is one of the two classic examples of Heian-era architecture inspired by Pure Land Buddhism.

It was built by Fujiwara no Kiyohira, founder of the Northern Fujiwara clan, whose capital at Hiraizumi flourished for about a century on the wealth of the far north. An ink inscription on the ridge beam gives the date 1124 and names Kiyohira and a group of noblewomen as patrons, and tree-ring analysis has confirmed timber felled around 1114–1116. Chūson-ji itself was founded to bring peace to a region scarred by the wars of the 11th century, and at its height it counted more than forty halls and pagodas. Hiraizumi fell to Minamoto no Yoritomo in 1189 and much of the temple burned in 1337, but the Golden Hall survived; already in 1189 a register of the temple's buildings described it as golden on all four walls, above and below.

The hall is a square of three bays, just 5.5 metres on each side, under a pyramidal roof clad in wooden tiles. Inside, four pillars are encrusted with mother-of-pearl and maki-e lacquer depicting floral scrolls and 48 bodhisattvas, a rare case in Japan of Buddhist figures rendered in lacquer rather than paint. Three altars, decorated with gilt openwork metal, peacock panels and inlays that include ivory from African elephants brought through northern trade routes, each carry an Amida triad flanked by six Jizō and two guardian kings. Beneath them rest Kiyohira, his son Motohira and his grandson Hidehira, together with the head of his great-grandson Yasuhira. The hall originally stood in the open; a protective cover was built around it in 1288, and since 1965 it has been sheltered behind glass inside a concrete hall, while the older wooden cover building stands nearby. Designated in 1951 as a National Treasure, it is the northernmost building to hold that status, and in 2011 Chūson-ji was inscribed on the World Heritage List as part of the Historic Monuments and Sites of Hiraizumi.

Getting there

Chūson-ji is in the town of Hiraizumi, Iwate Prefecture, about 10 km from the city of Ichinoseki. The nearest airport is Iwate Hanamaki Airport (HNA), about 48 km away. Hiraizumi Station on the JR Tōhoku Main Line serves the town, and Ichinoseki Station is on the Tōhoku Shinkansen.