Monograph No. 7
KOFUKUJI JIKIDO SITE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY CARRIED OUT IN 1955-56 AT THE DINING HALL SITE OF KOFUKUJI TEMPLE IN NARA
CONTENTS
Page
Chapter I. Outline of Survey 1
1. Preliminary Remarks 1
2. Present Condition of Site 2
3. Progress of Survey 3
Chapter II. Sites 6
1. General Remarks 6
2. Jikido (Dining Hall) 8
3. Hosodono (Dining Hall Annex) 12
4. Corridors 13
5. Nakamuro-Shoshibo (Petty monks’ Dormitory) 14
Chapter III. Artifacts 15
1. Debris Strata 15
2. Tiles 17
3. Other Objects 20
Chapter IV. Studies 23
1. Historical Study 23
2. Architectural Study 24
3. Comparison with Similar Buildings 29
4. Study of Artifacts 33
Appendix. Reconstruction of Dining Hall and Preservation of Site 38
Table(1). Classification of Tiles for Eaves 42
Table(2). Brief Chronological Table of Rise and Fall of Buildings of Kofukuji Temple 48
English Summary vii
KOFUKUJI JIKIDO SITE
KOFUKUJI TEMPLE, which is situated at Nobori-oji, Nara City, was one of the many temples that were transferred from the old capital, when the seat of administration was removed to the new capital of Nara in 710 A.D. Its completion is recorded to have been celebrated in 714, For a long time after its establishment, the temple enjoyed great prosperity as the tutelary temple of the Fujiwara Family, the most influential of Japan’s noble families. At the height of its prosperity, it is said that more than 150 buildings existed in the precinct, but most of them have fallen into decay. At present, there remain only the Central Main Hall, the East Main Hall, the Five-storied Pagoda, the North and South Octagonal Halls and other less important buildings. Yet the temple stands conspicuous in the ancient city of Nara, side by side with the Great Buddha of Todaiji Temple, for the beauty of its architecture and for the wealth of its invaluable art treasures, represented by the statues of Asura, the Ten Disciples of Sakyamuni, and others. In order to store and display these treasures, Kofukuji Temple contemplated the building of a treasury at the site of the “Jikido” （食堂 Dining Hall ）. As the work necessarily involved the destruction of the remains of the site, the temple desired to make a thorough research by excavation before the start of the work. The task was undertaken by the Nara National Research Institute of Cultural Properties whose staff conducted the excavation in 1955 and 1956.
The first survey was continued for about 50 days, beginning from October 5th, 1955, unearthing an area roughly 40m. square, where the Jikido and “Hosodono” （細殿 Dining Hall Annex ） once stood. The second supplementary survey was carried out for 31 days, beginning from March 5th of the following year, extending the digging to the site of the “Nakamuro-Shoshibo” （中室小子房 Petty monks’ Dormitory ）, 35m. west of the Dining Hall.
The site of the Dining Hall is situated east of the Lecture Hall and north of the East Main Hall. The site was turfed ground, with rows of pillar base-stones arranged in order. In the light of old plans preserved in the archives of the temple, and the layout of the buildings, there is no room for doubt that the site was occupied by the Dining Hall and Annex. There is no record of when these buildings were first constructed, but considering their nature, they must have been erected at the same time as the main edifices, during the early years of the 8th century. The buildings fortunately escaped the destruction that befell the other halls and pagoda until 1046, when a fire reduced them to ashes. This fire in 1046 was not recorded in the annals of the temple but is indirectly inferable from other sources. They were, however, soon re-erected, only to suffer a second fire, caused by war in 1181. But again the reconstruction work started the following year and these buildings, though often repaired, survived the ravages of time for seven centuries. In the early years of the Meiji Restoration, they were the oldest existing structures among the main buildings of the temple. It is to be deeply regretted that they were pulled down in 1876, due to the Abolition of Buddhism consequent upon the Meiji Reform. A two-storied European-style school building was erected on the site, which was later used as the Nara Prefectural Government Office.
The excavation disclosed that the base-stones appearing above the turf are not the original ones, but temporary stones set there after the new school building was removed. The original platform of the Dining Hall was discovered 40cm. below the present ground surface and the building itself, in agreement with what is stated in the old records, had a 10 pillar frontage and a 6 pillar depth. The platform measured 39.9m.×21.5m., and the building, measuring between the centres of the end-pillars, was 35.3m.×17m. The Annex, south of the Dining Hall, had a 10 pillar frontage and a 2 pillar depth, whose plan measured 35.5m.×8.8m., standing on a platform 39.9m.×14.6m.
All the base-stones of the Annex were removed and lost, but the majority of those of the Dining Hall remained. They are of granite, each with a circular seat for the pillar, carved out and set on top of a 90cm. square bottom. The original foundations of the base-stones were not made strong enough to support the load, and the base-stones sank gradually as time passed. To amend the uneven level of the base-stones, the architects set the cylindrical granites on the original base-stones when they rebuilt the halls in 1181.
The earliest platform is made of turf, but its height is not uniform, being subject to the slope of the original ground. It measures as low as 60cm. In height in the southern section, but in the northern, eastern, and northern half of the western sections, it exceeds 1.2m. The platforms of the Dining Hall and Annex were separated by a drain.
Two corridors were discovered. One, running westward, connects the Dining Hall with the Monks’ Dormitory, and the other, running northward, connects with the “Moridono” （盛殿 Pantry and Service Hall ）. At the western end of the West Corridor, there was a lone building called the “Nakamuro-Shoshibo” （中室小子房 Petty monks’ Dormitory which was built parallel with the “Nakamuro” （中室 Monks’ Dormitory ）. The south-eastern part of the platform of the Petty monks’ Dormitory was also excavated and studied.
At the eastern and western sides of the junction of the Dining Hall with the North Corridor, the excavation laid bare a deposit of eight layers, in all about 1.5m. thick, of which two include fire debris. (Fig. 6) These two debris layers are indicative of the disasters that befell the buildings in the 11th and 12th centuries. The upper one represents the fire in 1181, and the lower one the fire in 1046. They are very remarkable starting-points for the dating of the remains collected in the survey.
Of all the artifacts recovered from the site, the most numerous were the tiles of various ages, 176 varieties in all. Beside these, there are green-glazed pottery sherds of the 8th century, white-glazed pottery sherds of the 11th century, a great number of earthenware dish-shaped lamps of various ages, a bronze eave-bell, a terra-cotta Buddha image, both broken, and iron nails. Old coins were also discovered but most of them were the currencies of the Edo Period.
The sets of round and plain tiles for eaves (P1. XXI 1,2) were found in far greater numbers than any other tiles of the same age. Numerically speaking, the sets consist of 66% of round tiles and 48.5% of plain tiles, and these figures prove statistically that the sets were the actual tiles that adorned the eaves of the earliest buildings. The tiles used in the re-erection after the fire of 1046 were also found. They are in the main decorated with one basic pattern, but there are several varieties with minor alterations. This fact seems to endorse the statement contained in the record “Zo-Kofukuji-ki” （造興福寺記 Official record stating the progress of reconstruction of Kofukuji ） that tiles were made and fired at several different kilns around Nara.
Every temple of early times had a separate dining hall for monks, but none of these exists to-day. There is one at Horyuji Temple, but it was originally the “Mandokoroya” （政所屋 Temple Office ）, not the Dining Hall. Records supply something of the architecture of the Dining Hall of Todaiji Temple, but they are far from satisfactory. The importance of the present survey lies in the fact that it has brought to light for the first time the actual plan and structure of a dining hall of a large temple of the Nara Period which have hitherto been veiled in obscurity.
昭和三十四年三月十日 発行
興福寺食堂発掘調査報告
奈良国立文化財研究所学報 第七冊
