Nagoya Butsudan

High bases and lots of gold

Nagoya altars come in styles for each Buddhist school, from elegant Pure Land forms to calm, Zen-like pieces. Most stand on a high base whose front mitsumakuri doors lift up to store a full set of altar implements, and they use gold leaf lavishly. On Monzencho-dori, just south of Google Maps 大須観音 (opens in a new tab)Show map, dozens of altar and Buddhist goods shops line the street. It is made in Nagoya, Okazaki, Ichinomiya, Seto, Handa and other places in Aichi.

Eight crafts

• Eight specialist crafts, the hasshoku, each make their part: the wooden body, the inner shrine, carving, inner and outer fittings, lacquer, maki-e and gold leaf.
• Gold leaf is only about a thousandth of a millimetre thick, picked up with special chopsticks and laid onto lacquer.
• Parts are joined by mortise and tenon, so the altar can be taken apart, repaired and restored. Washed and restored, an altar is said to last at least 100 years.

Guilds and expositions

Backed by deep faith, the area had specialist altar shops by the early Edo period, and the big wholesalers formed guilds that refined their craft. In early Meiji a union was formed and Nagoya altars were shown at industrial expositions around Japan, widening their market. Today over 200 businesses make them. Since 1984, a memorial service for retired altars has been held each 27 March at Osu Kannon.