About the Japanese Meaning of the Double Helix （二重螺旋の日本的意味について）
About the Japanese Meaning of the Double Helix , 2006
By Tadami Yamada
山田維史 「二重螺旋の日本的意味について」2006年
One of the ancient buildings that I have had a deep interest with is Entsu Sanso-do, which remains in Aizu-Wakamatsu City. It is located about 3.5 km from Aizu-Wakamatsu Station, at the foot of Mt. Iimori, known as the place where the Byakkotai boys committed suicide during Boshin-Aidu-War (1868). It is a hexagonal three-story building built in the grounds of Munekata Shrine, with a diameter of over 6.3 meters at the bottom and a height of about 16 meters. There is a rotating elevator inside, with different slopes for ascending and descending, intertwined like the double helix of genetic DNA. It is commonly called the "Sazae Hall" (Turban shell Hall) because it resembles the inside of a conch shell.
It was built in 1796 by a monk named Ikudo of Jisso-ji Temple. Incidentally, this Jisso-ji Temple still exists. It was built in 1330 by the devout Tomita Sukeyoshi, a vassal of Ashina Morimune, and its founder was the monk Fukuman. It was originally located in Koga-machi, but was moved in 1592. The principal image of the temple is the Yakushi Kannon, and it is a prestigious temple with a land holding of 150 koku passed down from the Gamo clan.
Where on earth did this Jisso-ji monk Ikudo come up with the extremely unique image (architectural structure) of the Conical Hall?
From the 1950s to 1965, Kobayashi Bunji, a professor at Nihon University's Faculty of Science and Technology at the time, was researching this from an architectural perspective. His theory remains the most influential to this day, and it's fair to say that it has become the accepted theory.
Nihon University's Faculty of Science and Technology
Collection of Tadami Yamada
Here, we'll take a brief look at this unique architectural style.
The turban shell hall is actually depicted in the nishiki-e print "Honjo Rakanji Sazaedo" by Hiroshige and Shigemasa. This turban shell hall no longer exists, but the Meiji sculptor Takamura Koun (father of Kotaro) saw it and commented that its double helix structure would be most suitable for an art museum. However, it seems that almost no one realized how important it was from an architectural perspective. At least, not until Kobayashi Bunji.
Currently, five examples are known to exist, including one in Aizu-Wakamatsu City, and one at Sogenji Temple in Ota City, Gunma Prefecture. And there seem to have been two types of conch hall, officially called Entsu Sanso-do.
One is from Aizu-Wakamatsu, and has a hexagonal tower shape on its ground, with two spiral ramps combined to form an elevator. Thirty-three Kannon statues were placed along the ramps. This brings to mind the fact that Jisso-ji Temple, built by Ikudo, was a temple of Kannon worship.
The other is square in plan, and although it appears to be two stories from the outside, it has a mezzanine, making it in fact three stories. Combining mainly stairs with ramps in some places, one can walk around the hall in a clockwise direction to the third floor, worshiping the 100 Kannon statues lined up in the passageway. On the way back one descends by a different staircase. This third floor is like an observation deck, with a corridor decorated with a balustrade. Sogen-ji Temple in Ota City is of this style, and it seems that Honjo Rakan-ji Temple was the same. Shigemasa's nishiki-e print "Honjo Rakan-ji Temple" depicts people gazing at Mount Fuji from the third-floor corridor.
The Entsu Sanso-do appears to be closely linked to the belief in Kannon. It was likely designed to simplify pilgrimages. However, all extant examples of this architectural style seem to be limited to the Kanto and Tohoku regions. The reason for this has not yet been explained.
Let us return to the first question. As mentioned above, this is the only example of the Aizu-Wakamatsu style among the spiral halls. How did the founder, Ikudo, come up with the idea for a double helix structure like DNA? Architecture is not created by fantasy alone, and it is difficult to achieve without the theory of structural mechanics and design and construction techniques. I was once searching for images of egg shapes from around the world, past and present, and I realized that egg-shaped architecture not only did not exist, but was not even imagined. I came to think that this absence was probably due to the fact that it was technically impossible, which had suppressed the idea from the beginning. Anyway, architecture is imagined on the premise that it will be realized (although fantasy architecture does not exist).
According to the research of Kobayashi Bunji, the source of the idea is speculated as follows.
In 1721, the Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune lifted the ban on the import of Western books, bringing new knowledge from the West. Among them were people like Hiraga Gennai, who opened his eyes to realism in painting and perspective techniques. One of them is Satake Shozan, a painter and lord of the Akita domain. It was known for a long time among researchers of the history of early Japanese Western painting that there was a drawing of a double spiral staircase in a sketchbook left by Satake Shozan. It was also speculated that the drawing was a copy from an imported Western book. Kobayashi discovered that the drawing was a copy of the 35th drawing in the book Practical Perspective Drawing by Joseph Moxon (1627-1700), published in London in 1670. From this, Kobayashi concluded that in Shozan's later years (he died in 1785), the double spiral staircase was known to some people in Japan through imported Western books. However, he goes on to say that he has not found any solid evidence that Shozan's copy was directly related to the idea of the Sazae-do building. In other words, it is merely speculation.
While I respect the valuable research of Dr. Kobayashi Bunji, I also think about the simultaneous emergence of cultures.
Is there no double helix design in Japan?
Not at all. There is. And it's very close to us. It's deeply connected to religion.
This is the "shimenawa" (sacred rope). This is an unmistakable double helix structure. In general symbolic iconography, shimenawa is thought to be a design of rain clouds and thunder. It is a prayer for merciful rain, which is very important in agricultural culture. Or, although somewhat hidden, the belief in the sex gods as a prayer for fertility, which is also a characteristic of agricultural culture. Shimenawa can be seen as a symbol of the union of yin and yang and sexual intercourse. It also incorporates ideas about taboo and represents a barrier.
Thus, shimenawa is symbolically complex, but from my observation, in Japan the religious symbolism of the double helix has been linked to straw from a very early period. This can be traced back to Jomon pottery. I believe that the complex straw rope patterns known as Jomon are a kind of world view.
The double helix of the shimenawa and the double helix of the Spiral Hall - what is the link between these two? The key word is "religious symbolism."
The double helix in Mokson's "Practical Perspective Drawing" is a stone staircase. If Ikudo referred to this diagram, why did he not incorporate a staircase into the Spiral Hall? The decision to make it a slope rather than a staircase is not a technical issue. It seems to me that there is some underlying problem of image. Looking at the plan of the Aizu Spiral Hall measured by Kobayashi, created by the Architectural History Laboratory of Nihon University's Faculty of Science and Technology, I can't help but imagine the beautiful alignment of each individual straw strand of the straw rope, based on the way the slope is laid out. Something like the thick shimenawa of Izumo Taisha Shrine. Conversely, when looking at the thick shimenawa, wouldn't the idea of a double helix slope come to mind? What if the boards were laid out in this rope-like pattern?
In fact, I have another image in mind. Have you ever tried twisting a blind used to roll up sushi and other seaweed rolls as a child? If that blind was long enough, it should create a beautiful spiral with lines running through it. If you combine this shape with the thick shimenawa rope, the image becomes even more architectural.
In other words, I am adamant that Ikudo's idea was not a double helix as a staircase, but rather a slope. The idea of using a slope for the staircase in a temple or pagoda building is probably quite unusual. Imagine if Ikudo had seen Mokson's Practical Perspective Drawing, like Satake Shozan. Looking at it, what thought process would lead him to arrive at the image of a slope from the diagram of a staircase? It would be a different story if slopes were commonly used in Japanese architecture, at least. That is not the case. In fact, it is extremely unusual. Looking at actual architectural drawings, it must take a great deal of energy to change the idea from a staircase drawing to an emergency ramp, and I suspect that Ikudo has never even seen Mokson's "Practical Perspective Drawing."
Kobayashi Bunji's theory is himself a deduction, and my imagination has no solid evidence. I was simply speaking as one personal opinion, questioning the mechanism by which images are born.
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