Second Month Hall
Name of Building
Second Month Hall
Todai-ji Nigatsu-do
東大寺 二月堂
Town or City, Country where the building was originally established
Nara, Japan
Date the building was designed and/or first built
Original: 752
Current Rebuild: 1669
Name of Architect, Builder, or Primary Patron Responsible
Original: Monk Jitchū
Patron of Reconstruction: Tokugawa Shogunate
Culturally Specific Time Period
Original: Nara Period
Current: Edo Period
Geo-Location
34.689191860699836, 135.84429815818086
Materials
Timber (Cypress/Hinoki)
Ceramic Tile
Stone
Formal Style
Kakezukuri (Stage Building)
Building Description
A staged platform building built upon a hill overlooking the entire Todai-ji complex. The building serves as a temple to celebrate the second lunar month. Despite the original having been burnt down multiple times, it kept getting rebuilt. It's current iteration is a refined version of the Kakezukuri style of platform/stage building forms that were developed to build on hill sides. A costly and demanding building style that requires great expertise.
Image source
Image 1:Nigatsu-dō at Todaiji 1.jpg (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nigatsu-d%C5%8D_at_Todaiji_1.jpg)
Creative Commons or other copyright information
Image 1: Creative Commons
Student First and Last Name
Waldemar Barrios
Citation
Original: Monk Jitchū and Patron of Reconstruction: Tokugawa Shogunate, “Second Month Hall,” World Architecture, accessed June 28, 2026, https://www.worldarchitecture.artinterp2.org/items/show/263.
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