The term "Gongen-zukuri" is used today as composite shrine building which connected a main sanctuary to a votive offering hall in stone hall or Heiden. However, in the Edo era, the term "Gongen-zukuri" expressed the thing of the structure of the main sanctuary which possessed elements of the Buddhism architecture.
I clarified this report about conclusion of the term "Gongen-zukuri" as composite shrine building based on primary documents of the Meiji era.
I checked the process when composite shrine building which connected main sanctuary to votive offering hall in stone-hall or Heiden became the term "Gongen-zukuri". The beginning was able to identify that "Gongen-zukuri" was joined together as a building of Toshogu in Keikichi Ishii "Nihon Butsuji Kenchiku Enkaku Ryakushi". However, the recognition of the form that "Gongen-zukuri" compounded was not shown, and the understanding as structure of the Shinto and Buddhism mixture only was merely shown first.
Afterwards, Yasushi Tsukamoto tried to understand an element of the Shinto and Buddhism mixture of Toshogu from the placement relations of a temple and corridor. Chuta Ito showed that it was "Gongen-zukuri" that building which there was inside of a corridor changed into the thing which made a main sanctuary, a central palace, a f votive offering hall composition, and was born in the flow that placement of the Shinto shrine main shrine became like a Buddhist monastery.
In the Meiji era, "Gongen-zukuri" that meant main shrine which possessed elements of the Buddhism architecture originally clarified a process established as a term indicating the compound main sanctuary as above.
