Sazae-dō (Entsū Sansō-dō)

photo by くろふね · CC BY 4.0

photo by Kounosu · CC BY-SA 3.0

The way up and the way down never cross: double-spiral ramps from 1796, rare anywhere in the world.

Built in 1796 by the monk Ikudō, then abbot of the Shōsōji temple on Iimoriyama, the six-sided, three-storey hall is 16.5 metres tall and bears the official name Entsū Sansō-dō. Inside, two spiral ramps run without a single staircase: you go up clockwise for one and a half turns, cross a small bridge at the centre and come down anticlockwise for another one and a half turns, so that those going in and those coming out never cross paths, a solution all but unique in wooden architecture anywhere in the world. It has been a national Important Cultural Property since 1995.

Buddhist hall on Mount Iimoriyama, in Aizuwakamatsu: the same hill where, on 23 August 1868, during the Boshin War, nineteen young members of the Byakkotai took their own lives, believing, misled by the smoke of a fire in the city, that Tsuruga Castle had fallen. Their tomb now receives about two million visitors a year.

ℹ️ Open all year round, with no weekly closing day: 8:15–sunset from April to November, 9:00–16:00 from December to March. Tickets: adults 400 yen, high school students 300, elementary and junior high school students 200; half price with a disability certificate. 5 minutes' walk from the Iimoriyama-shita tram stop.

🚉 Aizu-Wakamatsu · 24 min walk

Sources: city.aizuwakamatsu.fukushima.jp · nippon.com · aizukanko.com · ja.wikipedia.org

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