Designed by Love Architecture, In recent years, the decay of local communities due to urbanization has changed the Japanese sense of religion including ancestor worship, weakening the “Jidan” (system where commoners had to register with a temple to prove their Buddhist faith) which is the financial basis of many temples in Japan. Charnel house, which is a new style of grave that appeared as though it responded to the trend of the contemporary times, is different from the graveyard passed down from generation to generation and does not follow the traditional Jidan system.
Photography: Masao Nishikawa
Amidst such time period, this temple, which stands in the city of Kawaguchi, had the garden changed into a funeral hall and parking lot, oppressing appearance of the main temple building. The tall fences surrounding the premises made the buildings a closed area. The over 40-year-old charnel house, which was rarely in use, stood in a quiet way.
Buddhism is originally not a religion that just supports the succession of families. The custom of visiting graves does not change easily even if the form of graves change. This is why we decided not only to renovate the charnel house related to “death” but also to reproduce the temple as a whole that involves people with “life”.
Photography: Masao Nishikawa
The originally curvy front approach was made straight, and existing granites were used to focus the perspective on the main temple. The place where...