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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

. Founded in the eighth century, its Muromachi-period Hondō and the Heian-period statue of Amida Nyorai enshrined within are Important Cultural Properties.

Name

Initially known as , the temple is said to have been renamed after a visit in 731 by

Emperor Shōmu was the 45th Emperor of Japan, emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 聖武天皇 (45)/ref> according to the traditional List of Emperors of Japan, order of succession. Shōmu's reign spanned the years 724 through 749, duri ...

, when a wondrous ray of light shone forth from the brow of the honzon.

History

Gyōki was a Japanese Buddhist priest of the Nara period, born in Ōtori county, Kawachi Province (now Sakai, Osaka), the son of Koshi no Saichi. According to one theory, one of his ancestors was of Korean descent. Gyōki became a monk at Asuka-d ...

is said to have founded the temple in 721 and to have died there in 749. The Hondō was re-erected in the early

Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...

. For a long time temple lay in the midst of rice fields.

Buildings

The three by two bay Hondō, with tiled hipped roof and

mokoshi In Japanese architecture , literally "skirt storey" or "cuff storey", is a decorative pent roof surrounding a building below the true roof. Since it does not correspond to any internal division, the ''mokoshi'' gives the impression of there bein ...

, is unusual among

wayō is a Buddhist architectural style developed in Japan before the Kamakura period (1185－1333), and is one of the important Buddhist architectural styles in Japan along with ''Daibutsuyō'' and the ''Zenshūyō'', which were developed based on ...

style buildings in being open, like the

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 ...

Daibutsuden, for its full height (without the need occasioned by the latter's

daibutsu or 'giant Buddha' is the Japanese language, Japanese term, often used informally, for large Japanese sculpture, statues of List of Buddhas, Buddha. The oldest is that at Asuka-dera (609) and the best-known is that at Tōdai-ji in Nara, Nara, N ...

), in being so narrow and shallow relative to its height, and in having an open porch extending across its entire front. An early

rebuild, it was dismantled for repair and reconstruction in 1933. It has been designated an Important Cultural Property.

Treasures

In the Hondō are a seated wooden statue of Amida Nyorai dating from 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 ...

( ICP), flanked by

Kannon Guanyin () is a common Chinese name of the bodhisattva associated with Karuṇā, compassion known as Avalokiteśvara (). Guanyin is short for Guanshiyin, which means " he One WhoPerceives the Sounds of the World". Originally regarded as m ...

and Seishi of the

Nanboku-chō period The , also known as the Northern and Southern Courts period, was a period in Japanese history between 1336-1392 CE, during the formative years of the Ashikaga shogunate, Muromachi (Ashikaga) shogunate. Ideologically, the two courts fought for 50 ...

References

External links

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Kikō-ji
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kiko-ji 8th-century Buddhist temples Buddhist temples in Nara, Nara 8th-century establishments in Japan 721 establishments Religious buildings and structures completed in the 720s Haji clan