Horyuji: precincts and layers of rebuilding

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Approaching the western precinct from the south, the pagoda is on the left and the main hall on the right: west and east respectively. The middle gate stands to the south and the lecture hall to the north, with corridors enclosing the principal space. The octagonal Yumedono hall stands in the separate eastern precinct.

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Eaves and mokoshi at the main hall

The main hall also rewards closer looking. Deep tiled eaves project above cloud-shaped bracket blocks and arms that support the roof structure. A lower, board-roofed skirt surrounds the first storey; this is a mokoshi. The extra roofline belongs to an enclosing skirt, so counting eaves alone does not establish the number of storeys.

Foundation and rebuilding

The temple’s foundation is traditionally dated to 607. An inscription on a Yakushi image links it to Empress Suiko and Prince Shotoku, a son of Emperor Yomei, carrying out Yomei’s wish for a temple and image after his death. Shotoku’s later veneration as a Buddhist saint helps explain the memorial buildings and images associated with him at Horyuji. The Nihon shoki records a fire in 670, and remains of the early temple survive at the Wakakusa site. The present western precinct was rebuilt in a different location in the late seventh and early eighth centuries. Its main hall, pagoda, middle gate and corridors are among the world’s oldest surviving wooden buildings.

Two precinct layouts

Archaeology makes the changed arrangement tangible. At Wakakusa, the pagoda stood south of the main hall; in the present western precinct, pagoda and hall stand side by side, west and east. The surviving foundations therefore document a change in the organisation of the precinct, as well as a change of site.

The eastern precinct was established on the former Ikaruga palace site in the first half of the eighth century. The lecture hall burned in 925 and was rebuilt in 990. Subtemples developed from the eleventh century. From around the twelfth century, devotion to Prince Shotoku spread more widely among ordinary people. Many surviving subtemple buildings date to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Early structures coexist with later construction and repairs.

Horyuji declined amid the upheavals of the Meiji period, followed by new approaches to protection under the 1897 Ancient Shrines and Temples Preservation Law. Modern repair work began in 1934, and photography recorded the main-hall murals in 1935. A fire in 1949 severely damaged the paintings. The damaged originals are kept in storage, while postwar recreations are displayed in the hall. In 1993, the Buddhist Monuments in the Horyuji Area, including buildings at Hokkiji, entered the World Heritage List.

The main hall houses images for worship, including a central triad of Śākyamuni and two attendants. Its halo inscription connects the commission with prayers during Prince Shotoku’s illness. Beneath the pagoda’s central pillar are Buddhist relics. Sculpted groups around its ground level give Buddhist narratives visible form: on the east, Mañjuśrī visits the sick layman Vimalakīrti, with disciples gathered around their dialogue. Yumedono commemorates Shotoku; temple tradition identifies its Guze Kannon as a life-size image associated with him. The buildings’ uses, the inscription and the later tradition provide different kinds of evidence.