[Fukushima] You never walk through the same place from the moment you enter until the moment you leave? Experience the mysterious building, Sazaedo!

Do you know "Sazaedo"?

It's not a seafood izakaya. It's the common name for three-story Buddhist temples with unique architecture that were built in several places from the Kanto region to the Tohoku region during the Edo period

The first Sazaedo (spiral-shaped hall) in Japan is said to have been built in 1780 at Rakanji Temple in Honjo, Edo. This Sazaedo at Rakanji Temple astonished people at the time and quickly became very popular. It is said to have become an Edo landmark, even appearing in illustrated guides to famous places.
Since then, several Sazaedo have been built in various places, but only a very few remain in their original form to this day. One of them is the Aizu Sazaedo in Aizu City, Fukushima Prefecture.

Experience a mysterious space halfway up Mt. Iimori, which is associated with the Byakkotai!

Aizu Sazaedo was built in 1796. Its official name is Entsu Sanso-do, and it is a hexagonal hall that is 16.5 meters high

Upon entering through the main entrance with its curved gable roof, you immediately come to a ramp. When the temple was first built, the 33 Kannon statues of the Saigoku pilgrimage were enshrined along this ramp, and visitors could conveniently complete the 33 Kannon pilgrimage by visiting them in order within this single temple.
Currently, instead of Kannon statues, there are framed pictures depicting the "24 Filial Exemplars of the Imperial Court," but the process of going up and down the ramp to explore the temple remains the same.

This might not sound particularly strange at first glance, but inside the Sazaedo Hall, the ascending and descending ramps are completely separate, and each is one-way. Despite the space being not particularly large, it is designed so that worshippers never pass each other.
This is the Sazaedo Hall's "double helix structure" ramp. It is a rare architectural feature worldwide and was designated a National Important Cultural Property in 1995.

When you actually go up the slope, you can hear the voices of people coming down from above, but you can't see them. It's a very strange feeling

This unique spiral structure looks like the inside of a conch shell, which is why it is called the "Sazaedo."

The complex and intricate structure was designed by a genius artist!

In fact, there is a building in France that uses a double helix structure similar to the Aizu Sazaedo.
It is Chambord Castle in the Loire Valley, built between 1519 and 1547. And it is thought that the double helix staircase of this famous castle, which is also a World Heritage Site, may have been designed by none other than Leonardo da Vinci.

Chambord Castle's unique design must have been famous in Europe at the time, and there's a theory that it somehow made its way to Aizu—perhaps through a book about Chambord Castle being brought to Japan!
While there's no concrete proof, wouldn't it be wonderful to contemplate the grand romance of the idea that the ingenuity of the Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci is still vividly alive in Aizu?

INFORMATION

Hazuki

A writer specializing in food and travel. He loves the Tohoku region, and often visits Fukushima in particular. He even once drove his own car from Kyoto to Fukushima and back