Shitennoji

Shitennoji was founded in 593 by Prince Shotoku and is the oldest officially administered temple in Japan. Nothing standing is original - it has burned, collapsed in earthquakes and been destroyed and rebuilt repeatedly, most recently in reinforced concrete in 1963 - but the layout is: a south gate, middle gate, five-storey pagoda, main hall and lecture hall on a single straight north-south axis inside a roofed corridor, which is the earliest Buddhist temple plan used in Japan and is named after this temple. Walking that axis is the reason to come. The Gokuraku-jodo garden behind is a Pure Land garden of ponds and streams. On the twenty-first and twenty-second of each month a large flea market fills the grounds. The temple remains a working centre of the Wa sect, which it founded in 1946.

History

Prince Shōtoku, known for his Buddhist faith at a time when Buddhism was not yet widespread in Japan, commissioned the temple as part of a national project to promote it, and invited three carpenters from the Korean kingdom of Baekje to lead the building. One of the men involved later founded the firm Kongō Gumi, which specialised in temples and shrines and was the world's oldest company until it was taken over by the Takamatsu Construction Group in 2004. The buildings have been rebuilt several times, most completely in 1963, and soon after the Second World War the temple left the Tendai sect and formed the Wa sect (Wikipedia, Shitennō-ji).

What you'll find

• The oldest plan in Japan - gate, pagoda, main hall and lecture hall on one straight axis.
• A 593 foundation - the first state-administered Buddhist temple in the country.
• Concrete reconstruction - rebuilt in 1963 to the original layout after repeated destruction.
• The monthly market - a large flea market on the twenty-first and twenty-second.

When to go

The twenty-first or twenty-second for the market; all year otherwise. Two hours.

Practical notes

The buildings are twentieth-century concrete - the antiquity is in the plan, not the fabric. Inner areas and garden are ticketed separately. Market days change the atmosphere entirely. The surrounding district is plain.

Nearby

Abeno Harukas is south at Tennoji; Shinsekai is west.

Key facts