page_title: Japanese pagoda
section_title: Tahōtō
hierarchical_section_title: Japanese pagoda / Wooden pagodas / Tahōtō
caption_attribution_description: English: Pagoda of Negoro-ji is Japan's National Treasure, in Iwade, Wakayama prefecture, Japan 日本語: 根来寺大塔は日本の国宝, 和歌山県岩出市 Camera: Sony DSLR-A100
context_page_description: Pagodas in Japan are called tō, sometimes buttō or tōba and historically derive from the Chinese pagoda, itself an interpretation of the Indian stupa. Like the stupa, pagodas were originally used as reliquaries but in many cases they ended up losing this function. Pagodas are quintessentially Buddhist and an important component of Japanese Buddhist temple compounds but, because until the Kami and Buddhas Separation Act of 1868, a Shinto shrine was normally also a Buddhist temple and vice versa, they are not rare at shrines either. The famous Itsukushima Shrine, for example, has one.
  After the Meiji Restoration the word tō, once used exclusively in a religious context, came to mean also "tower" in the western sense, as for example in Eiffel tower.
  Of the Japanese pagoda's many forms, some are built in wood and are collectively known as mokutō, but most are carved out of stone
context_section_description: The tahōtō is a type of wooden pagoda unique for having an even number of stories (two), the first square with a rounded core, the second circular. This style of tō was created surrounding the cylindrical base of a hōtō (see above) with a square, roofed corridor called mokoshi. The core of the pagoda has just one storey with its ceiling below the circular second storey, which is inaccessible. Like the tasōtō and the rōmon, in spite of its appearance it therefore offers usable space only at the ground floor.
  Because its kind does not exist either in Korea or in China, it is believed to have been invented in Japan during the Heian period (794 - 1185). The tahōtō was important enough to be considered one of the seven indispensable buildings (the so-called shichidō garan) of a Shingon temple. Kūkai himself is responsible for the construction of the tahōto at Mount Kōya's Kongōbu-ji.
caption: Negoro-ji's daitō
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