 This shaping was necessary as metal pieces were fit to the central pillar to support the spire.Later uses starting 12c involve them suspended just above the ground, thus making them suspensions like the Nikkō Tōshōgū Gojū-no-tū 日光東照宮五重塔 (1818) in Tochigi prefecture.Size had a bearing on the fragmentation of the pillars found in the 8th century.