AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Tucked beside the Three-Story Pagoda on the grounds of Hōkō-ji temple in the mountainous Inasa district of Hamamatsu, the Seven Bodhisattvas Hall (Shichison Bosatsu-dō) is a tiny, exquisite structure that has survived for over 620 years. Built in 1401 during the Muromachi period, it is the oldest surviving wooden building in all of Shizuoka Prefecture and holds the distinction of being a National Important Cultural Property.↗↗
When a devastating fire swept through Hōkō-ji in 1881 and consumed more than sixty buildings, this small hall alone endured. What visitors see today is a masterpiece of early 15th-century carpentry: a mere 90 centimeters wide and 150 centimeters deep, wrapped in a flowing nagare-zukuri roof with its original hinoki bark thatching. The sweeping curves, bold column faces, and generously arched braces preserve a late Kamakura-period aesthetic that was already archaic when the hall was constructed—making it a living document of architectural transition.↗
A Relic of the First Hōkō-ji
Hōkō-ji was founded in 1371 when Zen master Mumon Gensen, a son of Emperor Go-Daigo who had studied in China, accepted a land grant from the local Okuyama clan. The temple's name recalls Fangguang Temple on China's Mount Tiantai, whose landscape Mumon found echoed in these Hamamatsu highlands. The Seven Bodhisattvas Hall was erected three decades later, in 1401, as part of a grand complex that eventually grew to over sixty halls and structures.
