‘Teri-mukuri’: Opposites Residing Together

The roof over the front entrance of the Senshin Buddhist Temple’s Hondo has a unique shape.  

It curves gently up and down like a wave. This shape is called “Teri-mukuri,” a Japanese architectural term. It is a combination of two opposite shapes: “Teri,” (or “Sori”) a concave shape, curved inward and “Mukuri,” a convex shape, curved outward. 

This shape is often used at entrance areas and gates (“Mon”) of temples and shrines in Japan. 

According to an architectural specialist, “Teri-mukuri” originated in Japan and is influenced by Buddhist thought: opposites coexist, or the unity of opposites. Life and death, truth and false, good and bad, young and old, rich and poor, peace and war, and yin and yang. There are many opposites, but they coexist. Because of the other, one can exist.

 “The Two Deep Minds” is a popular phrase in Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, written by Master Shan-tao (Zendo Daishi):

“Deep mind is the deeply entrusting mind. There are two aspects. One is to believe deeply and decidedly that you are a foolish being of karmic evil caught in birth-and-death, ever sinking and ever wandering in transmigration from innumerable kalpas in the past, with never a condition that would lead to emancipation. The second is to believe deeply and decidedly that Amida Buddha’s Forty-eight Vows grasp sentient beings, and that allowing yourself to be carried by the power of the Vow without any doubt or apprehension, you will attain birth.” 

— Master Shan-tao (Zendo Daishi), “Collected Works of Shinran,” Page 85

Zendo Daishi explained the following about Shinjin: If you entrust yourself to Amida Buddha, what kind of thought or belief would you have? 

“One is to believe you are too attached to self and have countless bonno, passions from ego, so you have no hope to be born in the Pure Land,” he said. “However, at the same time, you believe because you are hopeless, Amida Buddha established the vows that enable you to be born in the Pure Land.”

It means “because you cannot go to the Pure Land, you can go to the Pure Land.” 

It sounds contradictory. But foolish beings and Amida Buddha, bonno and Nirvana, and hopeless and hopeful, coexist and cannot be separated like the back and front of a sheet of paper, so this is an appropriate expression to explain Shinjin. 

“Teri-mukuri” is one of the symbolic architectural designs to express opposites residing together. We can learn from such a view, so it is a meaningful design for the Hondo entrance.

Namoamidabutsu.