大佛三十三間堂

About this photo

This photograph shows Sanjusangendo in Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto, framed so that the whole long hall fits in. It appears in Kyoto Meisho (Famous Sights of Kyoto), published in 1907 (Meiji 40). "Daibutsu" (Great Buddha) in the title seems to refer to the Great Buddha of Hokoji, which stood just to the north.

The temple's official name is Rengeoin, and it was built in 1164 within the palace of the retired emperor Go-Shirakawa. The present hall was rebuilt in the Kamakura period after a fire. It is about 120 meters long and is called Sanjusangendo, "hall of thirty-three bays," because it has 33 spaces between its pillars. In the Azuchi-Momoyama period, Toyotomi Hideyoshi built a Great Buddha Hall just to the north, modeled on the one in Nara, and brought this hall into its grounds. In the Edo period, toshiya, contests in which archers shot arrows the whole length of the hall under its western eaves, were very popular.

The main hall is a National Treasure. Every January the Omato Taikai archery contest, inspired by toshiya, is still held, and young people who have just come of age, drawing their bows in festive kimono, are a familiar sight of winter in Kyoto.

Glossary