although the daigokuden is depicted as a single storey building in " nenju gyoji emaki " and " heian tsushi " (the history of heian-kyo ) compiled by the counselor for kyoto city in 1895 , the original building had most likely been a two-storey massive structure comparable to todai-ji temple daibutsuden (the house of the great buddha ) in nara or izumo-taisha shrine , as the expression ' unta (izumo taisha-shrine as first ), wani (todai-ji temple daibutsuden as second ), and kyosan (heian-kyo daigokuden as third )' is found in " kuchizusami " (folk poems ) written in 970 , because the main building of the daigokuden was rebuilt twice following two fires , and " nenju gyoji emaki " depicts the daigokuden rebuilt in 1072 . なお、『年中行事絵巻』や、1895年（明治28年）京都市参事会によって編纂された『平安通志』には、単層の大極殿が描かれているが、大極殿殿舎は火災により2度も建て替えられており、970年（天禄元年）成立の『口遊（くちずさみ）』に「雲太、和二、京三」と見えるように、当初は出雲大社や奈良の東大寺大仏殿に匹敵する大建築であり、『年中行事絵巻』所載のものは1072年（延久4年）に建て替えられた姿で、本来は重層（2階建て）であったとも推測される。
