Jurakudai - Karamon

The secluded Karamon at Daitokuji in Kyoto was once a gate from Hideyoshi's famed palace of Jurakudai and is a prized National treasure. It is also called the Higurashi Gate because you could become so captivated by the gate that you could become obsessed looking at it from sun up to sun down. It wa

Jurakudai - Karamon Gate

唐門

The secluded Karamon at Daitokuji in Kyoto was once a gate from Hideyoshi's famed palace of Jurakudai and is a prized National treasure. It is also called the Higurashi Gate because you could become so captivated by the gate that you could become obsessed looking at it from sun up to sun down. It was also the model for the Higurashi Gate at Nikko Toshogu.

This highly ornate gate is now part of the outer wall of the garden of the main hall at Daitokuji and is typically off limits. Even during the occasional (not even every year) limited opening of parts of Daitokuji you cannot always see the gate unless you are taken to the garden of the main hall where photos are typically prohibited. For this year's (2023) special exhibit however, the main hall of the temple is closed for repairs, but at the end of the tour after the Chokushimon (a gate from the Gosho, sometimes mistaken for the actual Karamon), Kinmokaku, Butsuden Hall and Hatto we visited the Karamon as viewed from outside the temple garden. During this tour they also allowed you to take photos (in your group of 20+ people) from a small square of pavement for exactly two minutes. No more.

Even if you knew nothing about the gate or if someone was skeptical about the Jurakudai origins, you would have to be awed and convinced by the incredible number of golden Toyotomi family crests (kamon) all over the gate!! It just screams of the opulence and self-indulgence of Hideyoshi. From the angle of these photos you cannot see it but during the tour we could go inside the fence area and look straight up. There is another section of carvings behind the dragons which include the most ornate and intricately carved pair of peacocks I've ever seen. I wish I could have gotten photos of them!

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Feature Pages

Hiunkaku

Karamon Gate

Jonenji Omotemon Gate