Sanbutsu-ji (Nageire-dō)
Interesting facts
- Its 2015 Japan Heritage story, one of the first 18 designated, bills the climb as Japan's most dangerous National Treasure viewing.
- The Nageire-do clings to the cliff at about 470 metres above sea level, in a hollow of the rock face.
- Its principal statue, a wooden Zao Gongen now kept in the treasure hall, held a document inside dated 1168 and is attributed to the sculptor Kokei.
- Seven more Zao Gongen figures once stood in the hall with it; tree-ring dating places the wood of one of them around the year 1002.
- A bronze mirror of 997, probably made in Tang China, is engraved with Buddhas of the Womb mandala and backed by two parrots holding flowers.
- The tiny Nokyo-do on the trail was long thought to be medieval, until tree-ring dating pushed it back to the late Heian period.
- An ink inscription of 1567 found inside the Monju-do showed the hall to be older than the Momoyama date once assigned to it.
- The temple bell hangs on the restricted upper mountain, so each New Year's Eve monks and local volunteers climb up at night to strike it 108 times.
- Mount Mitoku, once wholly the temple's precinct, was designated a national Historic Site and Place of Scenic Beauty in 1934.
Why it is worth it
High on the flank of Mount Mitoku in Tottori Prefecture, a small wooden hall sits inside a hollow in a sheer rock face, propped on slender pillars of uneven length that reach down to whatever ledges the cliff offers. This is the Nageire-do, the inner sanctuary of the Tendai temple of Sanbutsu-ji and a National Treasure of Japan, and there are few buildings anywhere that look so improbable. Local tradition explains it with a legend: in 706 the ascetic En no Gyoja, founder of the mountain religion of Shugendo, is said to have used his powers to throw the hall into the cliff, which is what its name means.
The temple's own history is more ordinary but long. It is said that in 849 the monk Ennin installed the three Buddhas, Shaka, Amida and Dainichi, that give Sanbutsu-ji ("Temple of the Three Buddhas") its name. The Nageire-do itself, judged by its style and by tree-ring dating of its timbers, was built in the late Heian period, around the year 1100, and the hall still stands on much of its original wood. It is built in the kakezukuri technique, the same principle of a deck carried on a forest of posts that is used at Kiyomizu-dera, but here compressed into a tiny structure tucked under an overhang, as if the mountain had grown a shrine.
Seeing it is a pilgrimage in the old sense, because the mountain is treated as a training ground rather than a viewpoint. Beyond the main hall a steep path climbs over roots and bare rock, past a series of smaller halls including the Monju-do and Jizo-do, whose verandas hang out over the void, to a point from which the Nageire-do can be seen across a gully. The temple checks visitors' footwear and will sell straw sandals to those in unsuitable shoes, does not allow anyone to climb alone, and asks that hands be kept free. The round trip from the reception takes around one and a half to two hours; the trail closes in winter and whenever it rains or snows.
Getting there
Sanbutsu-ji is in the town of Misasa, about 9 km from Matsuzaki, close to the hot-spring town of Misasa Onsen. The nearest airport is Tottori Sand Dunes Conan Airport (TTJ), about 24 km away in a straight line. By public transport, take a bus from Kurayoshi Station on the JR San'in Line to the Mitokusan stop below the temple.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Sanbutsu-ji is a Buddhist temple in the town of Misasa, Tottori Prefecture, Japan. The Nageire Hall of Sanbutsu-ji, built in the Heian period is designated a National Treasure of Japan.
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