One of the Buddhist teachings is that passing through the three gateways (emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness) brings us to liberation. Kuon-ji Temple considers its main hall the state of liberation, and this gate standing in front of the main hall is called San-mon, literally “three gateways.” The gate is 23 m wide, 9 m deep, and 21 m high, and is included in the three major San-mon gates in Japan along with the gats at Nanzen-ji Temple and Tofuku-ji Temple in Kyoto. The first gate was built in 1642, but lost in a fire. It was rebuilt in 1907. The Shaka Nyorai statue and the statues of Buddha’s 16 disciples are enshrined at the top of the gate. The board with the characters “Minobusan (Mount Minobu)” hung at the gate was written by the Nichiji Shonin, the 79th head priest of Kuon-ji Temple.