Gango-ji

Gango-ji is a temple of the Shingon Ritsu school in Chuin-cho, Nara, set within the old Naramachi district. According to the temple, its predecessor was Hoko-ji (Asuka-dera), which Soga no Umako began building in Asuka in 588, and which is regarded as the first full-scale temple complex in Japan. When the capital moved to Heijo-kyo, the temple was moved to the new capital in 718 (Yoro 2) and renamed Gango-ji. In 1998 it was inscribed as one of the World Heritage "Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara."

In the late Heian period the official state temples declined, and in the Kamakura period Gango-ji's large complex broke apart. The present grounds correspond to part of the former monks' quarters and lecture hall. One room of the monks' quarters, where the Nara-period scholar monk Chiko had lived, came to enshrine the Chiko Mandala, a painting of the Pure Land associated with him; it was called Gokuraku-bo and became a center of Pure Land faith in Nara. According to the temple's chronology, these quarters were extensively remodeled in 1244 (Kangen 2) and divided into the Gokuraku-do and the Zen-shitsu.

The Gokuraku-do (Gokuraku-bo Main Hall) was converted from three rooms of the monks' quarters into a hall with a hipped, tiled roof; its gable end on the east serves as the front, with a lean-to added in front. The national cultural properties database dates it to 1244, in the early Kamakura period. The Zen-shitsu Hall preserves four rooms of the monks' quarters under a gabled, tiled roof. Its style is the Daibutsu style of the Kamakura period, but many of its structural timbers are reused material from the Nara period or earlier. It keeps the layout and atmosphere of the quarters where monks of a great state temple lived and studied.

Parts of the roofs of both halls are laid with tiles in an old style, with the round tiles overlapping one another. According to the temple, tiles made by tile masters from Baekje for the building of Hoko-ji in Asuka were carried to Nara, and several thousand are still in use. Ancient eave tiles also remain at the southwest corner of the Gokuraku-do and the southeast corner of the Zen-shitsu. The Miniature Five-Storied Pagoda, kept in the Horinkan storehouse, is known as the only surviving five-story pagoda from the height of the Nara period, and because it is built authentically down to the details, one theory holds that it was a model for the pagodas of the provincial temples.

On the south side of the grounds is the Futoden, where about 1,500 stone pagodas and Buddhist figures from the medieval to the Edo period stand in rows, and at the Jizo-e on August 23 and 24 each year, a Mando Kuyo is held with lights in small oil dishes. Other events include the Setsubun-e and the Kaeru-ishi (frog stone) memorial on July 7. During the autumn special exhibition from late October to early November, the Chiko Mandala painted on a board, an Important Cultural Property, is shown and the admission fee also changes, so it is best to check the temple's information before you go.