tahōtō

thumb|300px|Tahōtō at Ishiyama-dera, dating to 1194 and a National Treasure; distinctive features are the square base; [[stupa mound; mokoshi or lower 'skirt' roof; upper pyramidal roof; and sōrin or finial]] thumb|150px|A hōtō thumb|150 px|Floorplan of the Tahōtō#Daitō|daitō at [[Negoro-ji; many features are shared with the tahōtō; the daitō is larger, with five bays on each side rather than three]] thumb|right|150px| at Ryūkō-ji (Fujisawa)|Ryūkō-ji, [[Kanagawa Prefecture; without a protective roof, the plaster weathers rapidly]] thumb|right|150px|Tokyō|Four-stepped brackets at [[Sagami-ji, Hyōgo Prefecture]] thumb|right|150px|Bronze sōrin or finial at Iwawaki-dera, Ōsaka Prefecture; comprising an inverted bowl, lotus petals, nine rings, flame, and jewel

A is a form of Japanese pagoda found primarily at Esoteric Shingon and Tendai school Buddhist temples. It is unique among pagodas because it has an even number of stories (two). (The second story has a balustrade and seems habitable, but is nonetheless inaccessible and offers no usable space.) Its name alludes to Tahō Nyorai, who appears seated in a many-jewelled pagoda in the eleventh chapter of the Lotus Sutra. With square lower and cylindrical upper parts, a mokoshi 'skirt roof', a pyramidal roof, and a finial, the tahōtō or the larger daitō was one of the seven halls of a Shingon temple. After the Heian period, the construction of pagodas in general declined, and new tahōtō became rare. Six examples, of which that at Ishiyama-dera (1194) is the earliest, have been designated National Treasures. There are no examples in China, whether architectural or pictorial, of anything that resembles the tahōtō, although there is a Song dynasty textual reference to a tahōtō with an encircling chamber.