Apart from Kyoto, Nara prefecture also has many beautiful temples and shrines. For Today’s Japan Photo, we will be travelling to Hōryū-ji 法隆寺, which is has been inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
This lovely photo was taken by jpellgen, and he manged to capture both the Kondo and the pagoda.
The temple’s pagoda is widely acknowledged to be of the oldest wooden buildings existing in the world, underscoring Hōryū-ji’s place as one of the most celebrated temples in Japan. In 1993, Hōryū-ji was inscribed together with Hokki-ji as a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the name Buddhist Monuments in the Hōryū-ji Area. The Japanese government lists several of its structures, sculptures and artifacts as National Treasures.
The five-story pagoda, located in Sai-in area, stands at 32.45 meters in height (122 feet) and is approximately 20X20 in width and widely regarded as one of the two oldest wood buildings in the world. The wood used in the center pillar of the pagoda is estimated to have been felled in 594, found through a dendrochronological analysis. The pillar is set three meters below the surface of the massive foundation stone, stretching into the ground. At the base of the pillar, what is believed to be a fragment of the Buddha’s bone is enshrined. Around it, four sculpted scenes from the life of the Buddha face north, east, south and west.[8] Although the pagoda is five-storied, it does not function as such to allow one to climb up inside but it is rather designed to inspire people with its external view.
The kondō, located side-by-side to the Pagoda in Sai-in, is widely regarded as the other oldest wood building extant in the world. The hall measures 18.5 meters by 15.2 meters. The hall is two storied, with roofs curved in the corners but only the first story has a double roof (裳階 mokoshi). This was added later in the Nara period with extra posts to hold up the original first roof because it extended more than four meters past the building.
Due to a fire incident that broke out on January 26, 1949, severe damage was caused to the building, mainly its first floor, and the murals. As a result of the restoration (completed in 1954), it is estimated that about fifteen to twenty percent of the original seventh century Kondo materials is left in the current building, while the charred members were carefully removed and rebuilt to a separate fireproof warehouse for future research.
Through a recent dendrochronological analysis carried out using the materials preserved during the restorations done in the 1950s, it has turned out that some of them were felled prior to 670, suggesting a possibility that the current kondō was already under construction when “the fire in 670″, as recorded in the Nihon Shoki, burned the former Wakakusa-garan down.
The hall holds the famous Shaka Triad, together with also bronze Yakushi and Amida Nyorai statues, and other national treasures. The wall paintings shown today in the Kondō are a reproduction from 1967.
