sanmen soubou 　三面僧房

KEY WORD :　architecture / buildings & structures

Priests and monks dormitories constructed to the north, east and west of the lecture hall *koudou 講堂, that is outside sacred precinct of a temple grounds which contain the *kondou 金堂, the main image hall, and the pagoda *tou 塔. These dormitories were narrow and exceedingly long. The standard plan had only one dormitory built on each side of the lecture hall. This arrangement is called ichigyou 一行, meaning a single line of buildings surrounding the lecture hall. Very large temples constructed double lines of dormitories, nigyou 二行, that were parallel to each other. In this case, one was larger, taibou 大坊, the other, shoushibou 小子坊. The former housed the high ranking priests, the latter, their attendants or lower ranking priests. In 7-8c, Koufukuji 興福寺, and Toudaiji 東大寺, both in Nara, had dormitories built to the north, east and west of the lecture hall but Gangouji 元興寺 also in Nara, had a double row of monks quarters built behind the lecture hall.

REFERENCES:

*soubou 僧房, *menzou 眼蔵

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