was a

Buddhist temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhism, Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat, khurul and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in B ...

established during the

Asuka period The was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710, although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato period, Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after the ...

in the city of Sakurai,

Nara Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the ...

, Japan. The temple no longer exists, and its ruins have been protected as a designated a National Historic Site since1970

Overview

The temple ruins are located on the west side of an ancient road connecting the capital at Asuka] with Sakurai. The ruins are about 300 meters southwest of the well-known Abe Monju-in, and the entire area is said to have been the home of the Abe clan. According to the ''

Nihon Shoki The or , sometimes translated as ''The Chronicles of Japan'', is the second-oldest book of classical Japanese history. It is more elaborate and detailed than the , the oldest, and has proven to be an important tool for historians and archaeol ...

'', the Abe were descendants of

Emperor Kōgen , also known as was the eighth legendary emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Very little is known about this Emperor due to a lack of material available for further verification and study. Kōgen is known as a "l ...

, the legendary 8th emperor of Japan. Per early 12th-century records at

Tōdai-ji is a Buddhist temple complex that was once one of the powerful Nanto Shichi Daiji, Seven Great Temples, located in the city of Nara, Nara, Nara, Japan. The construction of the temple was an attempt to imitate Chinese temples from the much-admir ...

, Abe-dera was founded in 645 AD as the

Abe clan The was one of the oldest of the major Japanese clans (''uji''); and the clan retained its prominence during the Sengoku period and the Edo period.Meyer, Eva-Maria"Gouverneure von Kyôto in der Edo-Zeit." Universität Tübingen (in German). Th ...

bodaiji A in Japanese Buddhism is a temple which, generation after generation, takes care of a family's dead, giving them burial and performing ceremonies in their soul's favor.Iwanami kojien The name is derived from the term , which originally meant ju ...

'' by Abe no Kurahashi, the ''

Sadaijin The ''Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary'', Kenkyusha Limited, was a government position in Japan during the Asuka to Meiji era. The Asuka Kiyomihara Code of 689 marks the initial appearance of the ''Sadaijin'' in the context of a cent ...

'' at the time of the

Taika Reform The were a set of doctrines established by Emperor Kōtoku (孝徳天皇 ''Kōtoku tennō'') in the year 645. They were written shortly after the death of Prince Shōtoku and the defeat of the Soga clan (蘇我氏 ''Soga no uji''), uniting Jap ...

. Nothing is known of the subsequent history of the temple, and it appears to have fallen into decline at the end of the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

, and was relocated to the Abe Monju-in at after a fire in the

Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...

Archaeological excavation In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...

s conducted in 1965 discovered that the temple site was 200 meters square, with the temple buildings orientated to the south. The layout of the temple was patterned after

Hōryū-ji is a Buddhist temple that was once one of the powerful Nanto Shichi Daiji, Seven Great Temples, located in Ikaruga, Nara, Ikaruga, Nara Prefecture, Japan. Built shortly after Buddhism was introduced to Japan, it is also one of the oldest Buddh ...

Ikaruga is a bullet hell shoot 'em up developed by Treasure. It is the spiritual sequel to '' Radiant Silvergun'' (1998) and was originally released in Japanese arcades in December 2001. The story follows a rebel pilot named Shinra as he battles an e ...

, with the foundation platform for the Main Hall in the east and a 15-meters square foundation platform for a

pagoda A pagoda is a tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist, but some ...

in the wes. TheLecture Hall was to the north, with a corridor connecting the Lecture Hall to the Middle Gate. The ruins of flat kiln adjacent to the north edge of the temple compound dates to the Kamakura period, and it is possible that tiles for the construction of Abe Monju-in were fired here. The remains also include a square platform known traditionally as the "Nakamaro Yashiki", a long platform running north-south from the platform, and a triangular platform to the northwest of the eastern platform. This "Nakamaro" may refer to the famous

Abe no Nakamaro , also known by his Chinese name Chao Heng ( zh, c=晁衡, pronounced ''Chōkō'' in Japanese), was a Japanese scholar and '' waka'' poet of the Nara period. He served on a Japanese envoy to Tang China and later became the Tang '' duhu'' (prot ...

, who was on the 717 Japanese mission to Tang China. Excavated artifacts include

Yamada-dera file:210401 Model of the garan of Yamada-dera seen from east side.jpg, 290px, Model of Yamada-dera Temple at the time of its construction. A part of the 1/1000 model of Fujiwara-kyo in the Kashihara-shi Fujiwara-kyo reference room. was a Buddhist ...

-style round eaves

roof tile Roof tiles are overlapping tiles designed mainly to keep out precipitation such as rain or snow, and are traditionally made from locally available materials such as clay or slate. Later tiles have been made from materials such as concrete, glass ...

s with single-petal lotus motifs and woven

arabesque The arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils" or plain lines, often combined with other elements. Another definition is "Foliate ...

patterns, presumed to date from the temple's founding period, as well as earthenware, plain-patterned bronze mirrors and gold rings, with most of the artifacts dating from the mid-7th century to the Heian period. A rare find is a

Tang Dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

sancai ''Sancai'' ()Vainker, 75 is a versatile type of decoration on Chinese pottery and other painted pieces using glazes or slip, predominantly in the three colours of brown (or amber), green, and a creamy off-white. It is particularly associated ...

animal foot (foot attached to a jar), of which only a few examples are known in Japan At present, the foundations of the tower, main hall, and corridor have been restored and maintained as a historic park.

References

External links

Sakurai City home page
{{Authority control Buddhist archaeological sites in Japan Historic Sites of Japan Sakurai, Nara Asuka period

Overview

See also

References

External links