For Today’s Japan Photo, we will be travelling to Nara to visit one of the most famous imperial and ancient Buddhist temples in Japan – Yakushi Temple 薬師寺. The temple is also one of the UNESCO heritage sites.
This lovely black and white shot of the temple was taken by potopoto53age. I think the photographer did a great job of portraying it as a majestic temple.
The original Yakushi-ji was built in Fujiwara-kyō, Japan’s capital in the Asuka period, commissioned by Emperor Temmu in 680 to pray for recovery from illness for his consort, who succeeded him as Empress Jitō. This act of building temples in devotion to Buddhist figures was a common practice among Japanese nobility when Buddhism was first imported from China and Korea. Emperor Temmu had died by the time Empress Jitō completed the complex around 698; and it was disassembled and moved to Nara eight years after the Imperial Court settled in what was then the new capital.
