Kojo-ji temple and its three storied pagoda

There are more than 700 islands in the Seto Inland Sea. One of them is Ikuchi-jima, Hiroshima Pref. There stands a temple with a painted and sculpted three storied pagoda completed in 1432, designated a national treasure. The temple stands on a hill with its pagoda higher on the hill.


HIRAYAMA Ikuo(1930-2009) is one of Japan's representative artists in the 20th century and served as president of Tokyo University of the Arts for about 16 years. He was born in this island and survived the A-bomb as a young student in Hiroshima at the age of 15. He completed 60 watercolor sketches at 60 locations around the Shimanami Scenic Sea Route linking the Honshu Main Land and Shikoku Island with bridges and islands such as Ikuchi-jima in the Seto Inland Sea.


I found three at this temple.


The Shin-bashira heart pillar stands from the attic of the first floor. All three storied pagodas built from the end of the 12th century adopted this method of erecting the heart pillar. This method was also employed for five storied pagodas but only a limited number of this type have been confirmed. I counted up to five. Probably just five are extant. And not many were built. This is the third oldest way of installing the heart pillar of the five storied pagodas.