200730 Model of Daian-ji at the time of foundation

is 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 ...

located in the city of

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...

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. It was founded by Emperor Jomei in 639 as one of the first official temples in Japan at the capital of

Asuka-kyō was the Imperial capital of Japan during the Asuka period (538 – 710 AD), which takes its name from this place. It is located in the present-day village of Asuka, Nara, Asuka, Nara Prefecture. Etymology Some of the many theories of what the p ...

and was subsequent relocated to

Heijō-kyō was the Capital of Japan during most of the Nara period, from 710 to 740 and again from 745 to 784. The imperial palace is a listed UNESCO World Heritage together with other places in the city of Nara (cf. Historic Monuments of Ancient ...

with the relocation of the capital, where it became one of the Seven Great Temples of

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It subsequently fell into decline and now is only a small fragment of its former size and importance. Its former precincts were designated a National Historic Site in 1929.

History

The history of this temple is based on the ''Daianji Garan Engi'' and ''Ruki Shizaichō'' (''Daianji Zaichō'') from 747 and 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 ...

'' and ''

Shoku Nihongi The is an imperially-commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 797, it is the second of the '' Six National Histories'', coming directly after the and followed by ''Nihon Kōki''. Fujiwara no Tsugutada and Sugano no Mamichi served as t ...

''. According to these, when Prince Tamura (later Emperor Jomei) visited the sick

Prince Shōtoku , also known as or , was a semi-legendary regent and a politician of the Asuka period in Japan who served under Empress Suiko. He was the son of Emperor Yōmei and his consort, Princess Anahobe no Hashihito, who was also Yōmei's younger half ...

, he asked him to rebuild the Kumagoi Seisha as an official temple. By tradition, the Kumagoi Seisha was located in what is now Yamatokōriyama, and corresponds to the ruins of Nukata-dera.

Kudara-no-Ōdera

Prince Tamura, following the wishes of the prince, began building a large palace and a large temple on the banks of the Kudara River in 639. This was called the and is regarded as the first official temple in Japan. The exact location of this temple was unknown for many years, and numerous locations have been proposed; however, in 1997 the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties announced that the Kibi-ike temple ruins southwest of

Sakurai, Nara file:Sakurai city-office.jpg, 270px, Sakurai City Hall is a city located in Nara Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 54,384 in 25678 households, and a population density of 550 persons per km2. The total area of the city i ...

were verified as the location of Kudara-no-Ōdera. These temple ruins are located to the east of the Fujiwara-kyō palace ruins. The Kibi-ike temple ruins had a layout patterned on

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 ...

, with a main hall to the east and 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 ...

to the west, and the style and date of the excavated ancient roof tiles suggest that this temple was built in the first half of the 7th century.

Takaichi-daiji

On December 17, 673, the second year of

Emperor Tenmu was the 40th Emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 天武天皇 (40) retrieved 2013-8-22. according to the traditional order of succession. Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1959). ''The Imperial House of Japan'', p. 53. He ascended ...

's reign, Kudara-no-Ōdera was relocated and renamed the The previous year, Emperor Tenmu (Prince Ōama) won the Jinshin War, and the year the temple was moved coincided with the 33rd anniversary of the death of Emperor Tenmu's father, Emperor Jomei, and the13th anniversary of the deaths of his mother, Empress Saimei.

Daikan-daiji Temple

290px, A model of the Daikan-daiji temple complex, seen from the east. Part of a 1/1000 scale model of Fujiwara-kyo, Kashihara City Fujiwara-kyo Archives The ''Nihon Shoki'' and the ''Daian-ji Zaizaichō'' (Record of Daian-ji Temple Collection) indicate that in 677, Takaichi-no-Ōdera was renamed . Construction the temple continued during the reign of Emperor Monmu (697-707). However, archaeological evidence indicates that the Takaichi-no-Ōdera and the Daikan-daiji were most likely two completely separate temples, with the location of Takaichi-no-Ōdera most likely to have been the Kinomoto temple ruins located northwest of Mt. Kaguyama and east of Fujiwara Palace. When the capital was moved to

in 716–17, Daikan-daiji, along with Yakushi-ji, and Gangō-ji, was also moved to the new capital, becoming Daian-ji in 729. The ruins of Daikan-daiji are now a National Historic Site.

Daian-ji

The Daian-ji temple complex was almost complete by around 738, except for the eastern and western pagodas. The eastern pagoda was built in the latter half of the Nara period, and the western pagoda was built between the end of the Nara period and the beginning 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 ...

, making it the last of the main temple buildings. Until Daikandai-ji, were the pagodas were nine-story structures, but the pagodas at Daian-ji built as a seven-story structures. Heijō-kyō was were laid out in a grid pattern with a street every one ''chō'' (about 109 meters). Daian-ji extended over an area of three ''chō'' east-west and five ''chō'' north-south. The distinctive feature of the layout of the temple complex is that the east and west pagodas were far away from the main hall, and are built on the outside (south) of the Great South Gate. The Sugiyama Kofun located to the north of the temple complex was incorporated into the temple grounds. During this period, Daian-ji, along with Gangō-ji, was one of the two major schools of Sanron Buddhism in Japan. Sanron Buddhism was established by Kashō Daishi Kissō (549-623) during the

Sui Dynasty The Sui dynasty ( ) was a short-lived Dynasties of China, Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 581 to 618. The re-unification of China proper under the Sui brought the Northern and Southern dynasties era to a close, ending a prolonged peri ...

. Dōji, a student of Kissō and a monk who stayed in

Tang China 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 ...

for 16 years, brought a new translation of the

Golden Light Sutra The Golden Light Sutra or (; ) is a Buddhist text of the Mahayana branch of Buddhism. In Sanskrit, the full title is ''Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtrendrarājaḥ'' "The King of Sutras on the Sublime Golden Radiance" History The sutra was origina ...

, which was considered a scripture to protect the country, to Japan and was the head abbot of Daian-ji. According to the record for 747 in the Daian-ji Asset Register, there were 887 monks living at Daian-ji at that time and the temple played a major role in the development of Buddhism in Japan. Monks from Daian-ji persuaded the Tang monk Jianzhen and the Indian monk Bodhisena to come to Japan. Many of the teachers of

Kūkai , born posthumously called , was a Japanese Buddhist monk, calligrapher, and poet who founded the Vajrayana, esoteric Shingon Buddhism, Shingon school of Buddhism. He travelled to China, where he studied Tangmi (Chinese Vajrayana Buddhism) und ...

and Saichō were monks of Daian-ji. After the capital was moved to

Heian-kyō Heian-kyō was one of several former names for the city now known as Kyoto. It was the official capital of Japan for over one thousand years, from 794 to 1868 with an interruption in 1180. Emperor Kanmu established it as the capital in 794, mo ...

, Kūkai was appointed as the head priest of Daian-ji Temple in 829. However, as Buddhism shifted its focus to esoteric Buddhism, centered on

Tō-ji , also known as is a Shingon Buddhist temple in the Minami-ku, Kyoto, Minami-ku ward of Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 796, Tō-ji Temple was one of the only three Buddhist temples allowed in the city at the time it became the capital of Japan. As s ...

and

Enryaku-ji is a Tendai monastery located on Mount Hiei in Ōtsu, overlooking Kyoto. It was first founded in 788 during the early Heian period (794–1185) by Saichō (767–822), also known as Dengyō Daishi, who introduced the Tendai sect of Mahayana ...

, Daian-ji gradually declined. In 911 are fire destroyed many temple buildings. In 949, the West Pagoda was burned down by lightning, and on March 1, 1017, a major fire broke out, destroying all the buildings except for the '' honzon'' Shaka Nyorai statue (said by the twelfth-century Oe no Chikamichi in '' Shichidaiji Junrei Shiki'' to have been the finest work in Nara)ref name="Heibonsha"/> and the East Pagoda. The main temple was rebuilt by 1116, but it never regained its former size or importance. It later became a branch temple of Kofuku-ji. The aforementioned Shaka Nyorai statue was subsequently lost during the 1596 Keichō–Fushimi earthquake. By the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

, only a small Kannon chapel remained. The stone bases of the former twin pagodas were removed for reuse at Kashihara Jingū in 1889, while the ruins of the other buildings lie in adjacent properties. The current main hall was built in 1922. To the south of the temple is Motoishiyama Hachiman-gu Shrine, a former guardian shrine, which was once within the temple's precincts.

Cultural properties

The six of nine

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capita ...

statues surviving at Daian-ji have been designated Important Cultural Properties. These statues are thought to have been made at end of the Nara period, but each statue is heavily damaged and most of the arms and other parts have been replaced. As no statues matching these names can be found in the "Daian-ji Temple Asset Register" from 781, they are thought to have been made after that time. : Jūichimen Kannon, : Senjū Kannon, : Fukūkensaku Kannon, : Yōryū Kannon, : Shō Kannon, :

Four Heavenly Kings The Four Heavenly Kings are four Buddhism, Buddhist gods or Deva (Buddhism), ''devas'', each of whom is believed to watch over one cardinal direction of the world. The Hall of Four Heavenly Kings is a standard component of Chinese Buddhism, Ch ...

. :Temple records of the

Tenpyō was a after '' Jinki'' and before ''Tenpyō-kanpō.'' This period spanned the years from August 729 through April 749. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * 729 : The new era name was created to mark an event or series of events. The p ...

era (747) have also been designated an Important Cultural Property and are now held in

Chiba Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama ...

References

{{Buddhist temples in Japan Asuka period Buddhist temples in Nara, Nara Historic Sites of Japan Kōyasan Shingon temples Sanron-shū Prince Shōtoku