, or 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 Mii neighborhood of the town of

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 ...

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 ...

. It belongs to the Shōtoku-shū sect and its ''

honzon , sometimes referred to as a Gohonzon ( or ), is the enshrined main image or principal deity in Japanese Buddhism. The buddha, bodhisattva, or mandala image is located in either a temple or a household butsudan. The image can be either a statue ...

'' is a statue of

Yakushi Nyorai Bhaiṣajyaguru (, zh, t= , , , , ), or ''Bhaishajyaguru'', formally Bhaiṣajya-guru-vaiḍūrya-prabha-rāja ("Medicine Master and King of Lapis Lazuli Light"; zh, t=藥師琉璃光(王)如來, , , ), is the Buddha of healing and medicine i ...

The temple's full name is Myōken-san Hōrin-ji (妙見山法輪寺). It is located about a kilometer north of the East Precinct of

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 ...

. The existing three-story pagoda was rebuilt in 1975, so it is not included in the

World Heritage World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

Buddhist Monuments in the Hōryū-ji Area The UNESCO World Heritage Site Buddhist Monuments in the Hōryū-ji Area includes a variety of buildings found in Hōryū-ji and Hokki-ji in Ikaruga, Nara, Ikaruga, Nara Prefecture, Japan. These buildings were designated in 1993 along with the sur ...

History

The foundation of this temple is uncertain, as there are no records in 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 ...

'' or ''Hōryū-ji Garan Engi and Ruki Shizaichō''. There are two prevalent theories about the founding of the temple. One theory is found in the "Prince Shotoku's Private Records" (1238, written by Kenshin), which says that Prince Yamashiro no Oe, the son of

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 ...

, built the temple in 622 (the 30th year of the reign of

Empress Suiko (554 – 15 April 628) was the 33rd monarch of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō''): She introduced Buddhism in Japan and built many Buddhist temples, but she held the balance between Buddhism and Shintoism. Under her rule, Japan ...

) to pray for the prince's recovery from illness. The other theory, which appears in the "Jōgū Shōtoku Taishi Denbōketsuki" (written in the early

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 "Shōtoku Taishi Denryaku" (917, written by

Fujiwara no Kanesuke , also known as the , was a middle Heian-period '' waka'' poet and Japanese nobleman. He is designated as a member of the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals. His great-granddaughter was Murasaki Shikibu, author of the well-known monogatari the ''Tale ...

), is that it was built by three men from

Baekje Baekje or Paekche (; ) was a Korean kingdom located in southwestern Korea from 18 BCE to 660 CE. It was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla. While the three kingdoms were in separate existence, Baekje had the h ...

, but the biographies of each of men are unknown.

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 unearthed

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 similar to those of the rebuilt Hōryū-ji (currently standing) and roof tiles one level older than that. Post holes and ditches thought to be the remains of a predecessor building were also found, and it is believed that the original construction dates back to the end of 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 mid-7th century. The principal image, a statue of Yakushi Nyorai and a statue of Kokūzō Bosatsu, are also ancient statues dating back to the end of the Asuka period. In 1367 the temple was destroyed by a fire. After this, the temple's popularity declined, and 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 ...

, the only notable building left was the three-story pagoda. The temple was again destroyed in 1645 by a typhoon, again except for the three-story pagoda. During the

Kyōhō , also pronounced Kyōho, was a after '' Shōtoku'' and before ''Genbun.'' This period spanned the years from July 1716 through April 1736. The reigning emperors were and . Change of era * 1716 : The era name of ''Kyōhō'' (meaning "Undergo ...

era the temple became a center of the

Myōken Myōken (, ; Chinese: 妙見菩薩 (Traditional) / 妙见菩萨 ( Simplified), ; Japanese: 妙見菩薩, ''Myōken Bosatsu''), also known as Sonjō-Ō (尊星王, "Venerable Star King", also ''Sonsei-Ō'' or ''Sonshō-Ō''), is a Buddhist deifi ...

, worshipping the

North Star Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris ( Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an apparent magnitude t ...

. In 1760, the three-story pagoda was restored, followed by the Golden Hall, Lecture Hall, and South Gate in 1761. In 1903, the three-story pagoda, which had been designated a

National Treasure A national treasure is a structure, artifact, object or cultural work that is officially or popularly recognized as having particular value to the nation, or representing the ideals of the nation. The term has also been applied to individuals or ...

, was dismantled and repaired. However, on July 21, 1944, it was struck by lightning and burned down. As the

lightning rod A lightning rod or lightning conductor (British English) is a metal rod mounted on a structure and intended to protect the structure from a lightning strike. If lightning hits the structure, it is most likely to strike the rod and be conducted ...

had been removed under the metal collection order issued during the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...

In 1975, the three-story pagoda was rebuilt, and holds the original

reliquary A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', ''Chasse (casket), chasse'', or ''phylactery'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary, or the room in which one is stored, may also be called a ''feretory''. Relics may be the purported ...

that was saved from the fire in 1944.

National Important Cultural Properties

*, late Asuka period. Formerly the principal image of the Kondō, it is currently housed in the storage facility. Carved from a single piece of

camphor Camphor () is a waxy, colorless solid with a strong aroma. It is classified as a terpenoid and a cyclic ketone. It is found in the wood of the camphor laurel (''Cinnamomum camphora''), a large evergreen tree found in East Asia; and in the kapu ...

wood, the statue is seated in a cross-legged position on a skirted seat, making the abhaya mudra (right hand raised with palm facing forward, left hand placed palm up on the lap). The statue has a height 110.2-cm. The main part of the head and body are carved from a single piece of wood, but the right side of the body and both legs are made from a different piece of wood, and there are also other irregular joints. Most of the paint has peeled off, revealing the bare wood. The base is made from hinoki cypress, and the halo was added later. It has some similarities to the

Shaka Nyorai Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

statue in the Golden Hall of Hōryū-ji (made in 623), such as the shape of the entire statue, including the skirt seat, which fits into an

isosceles triangle In geometry, an isosceles triangle () is a triangle that has two Edge (geometry), sides of equal length and two angles of equal measure. Sometimes it is specified as having ''exactly'' two sides of equal length, and sometimes as having ''at le ...

, the style of clothing, the long face, the lack of a waistline, and the long neck. This statue is estimated to have been made in the late Asuka period (around the second half of the 7th century), slightly later than the Hōryū-ji Shaka statue. *, late Asuka period. Formerly located in the Kondo, it is currently housed in the storage facility. Made from a single piece of camphor wood, it is 175.4-cm high. It stands upright, with its right arm extended forward with its forearm (from the elbow) facing forward and its palm facing up. Its left arm hangs down with its palm facing backward and is holding a water pitcher. The main part of the head and body, as well as the lotus flesh and tenon at the feet, are cut from a single piece of wood. Although the statue is not hollowed out, there is a cavity inside, which suggests that decayed wood was used from the beginning. Most of the paint has peeled off, revealing the bare wood. The wrists, topknot, and the robe hanging down from the left arm are later additions. It is called "Kokūzō Bosatsu," but this is presumably due to a later belief that Prince Shōtoku was an incarnation of Kokūzō Bosatsu, but the original name of the statue is unknown. The

Kannon Bosatsu 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 ...

statue at Hōryū-ji, commonly known as "Kudara Kannon", was called "Kokūzō Bosatsu" until the

Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...

, and it is possible that this statue was originally carved as a Kannon Bosatsu. It is estimated that this statue was made in the late Asuka period, slightly later than the Kudara Kannon statue. *, Heian period. *, Heian period. *, Heian period. *, Heian period. Main image of the Lecture Hall, this statue is 3.5 meters tall. *, Asuka period. *, Heian period. *, Asuka period. *, Asuka period.

Gallery

File:Horinji05n4290.jpg, The '' Minamimon'' gate File:Horinji03b 1024.jpg, The ''

Kondō Kondō, Kondo or Kondou (近藤 "near wisteria") is a surname prominent in Japanese culture, although it also occurs in other countries. Notable people with the surname include: *, Japanese ballet dancer *, man known for marrying a fictional vocal ...

'' (main hall) File:Horinji01b 1024.jpg, The 3-story

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 ...

File:Horinji02 2000.jpg, The

Mii

280px, Mii The original name of the temple, comes from a well said to have been excavated by Prince Shōtoku. Documents from the

Muromachi The , also known as the , is a division of History of Japan, Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Ashikaga shogunate, Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially establ ...

and

s indicate that there were three wells, but the locations of the other two are now unknown. The surviving well, which was designated a National Historic Site in 1944, was filled in at the beginning of the

and remained buried until it was excavated in 1932. The well is about 4.2 meters deep, 0.97 meters in diameter at the top, and is circular with a bulge in the middle. The bottom of the well is dug about 20-centimeters deeper in the center, and four stones are arranged to form a pit, and the bottom 1.15 meters is made of stonework, and the top three meters is made of brickwork, giving it a unique structure. The bricks are fan-shaped, 25-cm long, 23-cm wide on the inside wall of the well, and 29-cm wide on the back, and 7.6-cm thick; there are no other known examples of this type of brick being used in large quantities. The well is located approximately 500 meters northwest from the temple, on what was once part of the temple precincts.

Mii Tile Kiln Site

The remains of a kiln for firing roof tiles is located on the western slope of a low hill called Kawarazuka, between Hōrin-ji and

Hokki-ji – formerly known as and – is a Buddhist temple temple in the Okamoto neighborhood of the town of Ikaruga, Nara Prefecture, Japan. The temple's honorary '' sangō'' prefix is , although it is rarely used. The temple was constructed to ho ...

. The remains were discovered in 1931 along with old tiles during the reclamation of an orchard, and archaeological excavation revealed that they were the "Tile Mound" mentioned in ancient records. The following year, in 1932, the ruins were designated a National Historic Site as the . The kiln was an underground ''

noborigama The ''anagama'' kiln (Japanese Kanji: 穴窯/ Hiragana: あながま) is an ancient type of pottery kiln brought to Japan from China via Korea in the 5th century. It is a version of the climbing dragon kiln of south China, whose further deve ...

''-style climbing kiln with its opening facing southwest, a semicircular combustion area, and a firing floor with a slope of about 40 degrees and more than 10 steps. The horizontal distance from the fire opening to the top of the existing firing area was about 4.9 meters, of which about 3.8-meters remains. The side walls of the ceiling rise up in an arch shape, and it is believed that the fire opening was also arched. The excavated items were fragments of flat and round roof tiles, with the round eaves tiles having charcoal and burnt soil mixed in, and it is speculated that the tiles were supplied to Hōryū-ji and Hōrin-ji between the end of the 7th century and the beginning of the 8th century.

References

* Pamphlet distributed at Hōrin-ji, obtained April 7, 2007 * ''

Daijirin is a comprehensive single-volume Japanese dictionary edited by , and first published by in 1988. This title is based upon two early Sanseidō dictionaries edited by Shōzaburō Kanazawa (金沢庄三郎, 1872–1967), ''Jirin'' (辞林 "Fores ...

'' Japanese dictionary, 3rd edition * ''

Kōjien is a single-volume Japanese dictionary first published by Iwanami Shoten in 1955. It is widely regarded as the most authoritative dictionary of Japanese, and newspaper editorials frequently cite its definitions. As of 2007, it had sold 11 mi ...

'' Japanese dictionary, 5th edition

External links

*}
Nara Prefectural database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Horin-ji (Nara) Buddhist temples in Nara Prefecture Prince Shōtoku Temples of Bhaiṣajyaguru Ākāśagarbha Ikaruga, Nara 7th-century establishments in Japan Historic Sites of Japan Important Cultural Properties of Japan