There appeared various new, elaborately shaped types of pagodas in the medieval period, chiefly because the quality of the materials in use had changed; hard stones such as granite and Anzangan rock (andesite) were substituted for a fragile stone called tuff (volcanic tuff); a mason of the Okura group entered the Kanto region and actively worked; the technologies advanced; and the Kamakura New Buddhism (new schools of Japanese Buddhism founded during the Kamakura period), including the Zen sect from the continent, evolved.
中世期の石塔は、それまでのもろい凝灰岩から硬質の花崗岩や安山岩の利用といった材質の変化、また関東に入った大蔵系石工の活躍、技術の進歩、大陸から入った禅宗を含む鎌倉新仏教の台頭などによって、複雑な形を持った新たな形式が数多く登場した。