Taima-dera

Taima-dera is an old temple in Taima, Katsuragi, Nara Prefecture, with its halls spread out at the eastern foot of Mt. Nijo. According to the temple, it began in 612 as Manpozo-in, built in Kawachi by Prince Maroko, the third son of Emperor Yomei, following the teachings of his elder brother, Prince Shotoku. Later the prince's grandson, Taima no Kunimi, moved the temple to this site, and En no Gyoja donated the land. The temple dates the start of today's Taima-dera to 681, when the principal image, a statue of Miroku Buddha, was enshrined in the Kondo.

In the Nara period the East Pagoda, West Pagoda and the Senju Hall (today's Mandala Hall) were added, and the temple took shape. It is the only temple in Japan where an ancient pair of east and west three-story pagodas still stands. At its height in the Heian period it was a large temple with more than forty monks' residences, and 13 of them remain today. During the burning of the Nara temples in 1180, the Lecture Hall burned down completely and the Kondo was badly damaged, but both were rebuilt in the Kamakura period. Since Ojo-in (today's Oku-in) of the Jodo school was founded in 1370, the Shingon and Jodo schools have looked after the temple together.

The Main Hall (Mandala Hall), a National Treasure, is a large building seven bays wide and six bays deep with a hip roof covered in hongawara tiles. The temple explains that the inner sanctuary keeps the style of the Tenpyo period, and that in the Eiryaku era (end of the Heian period) the outer sanctuary and other parts were added, wrapping around the older hall. The national cultural properties database dates the building to 1161. The principal image, the Taima Mandala, is a huge hanging picture four meters square, known for the legend that Princess Chujo wove it in a single night; today a copy, the Bunki Mandala (an Important Cultural Property), is enshrined. The shrine cabinet that holds the mandala and the altar platform donated by Minamoto no Yoritomo are also National Treasures.

The East Pagoda and West Pagoda are both three-bay, three-story pagodas roofed with hongawara tiles. The East Pagoda, built first, dates from the Nara period and is the oldest building at the temple. The West Pagoda was built a little later, so its style also differs. The temple dates the West Pagoda to between the Nara and Heian periods, while the national cultural properties database gives the early Heian period. The Kondo (an Important Cultural Property) enshrines a seated Miroku Buddha (a National Treasure) said to be the oldest clay statue in Japan, and near the Nio Gate hangs a temple bell cast in the 680s that is said to be the oldest in Japan (a National Treasure).

The grounds are free to walk around, and you can see both pagodas up close from within them. The three main halls, the Main Hall, Kondo and Lecture Hall, are visited with a ticket bought at the Main Hall. The subtemple Naka-no-bo has a garden called Kogu-en that uses the East Pagoda as borrowed scenery, with a separate admission fee. Every year on April 14, the Nerikuyo-eshiki ceremony recreates the scene of twenty-five bodhisattvas welcoming Princess Chujo to paradise. From late April to early May, about 1,200 peony plants bloom at Naka-no-bo.