Yakushi-ji

Yakushi-ji was vowed in 680 by Emperor Tenmu, who prayed for the recovery of his empress, the future Empress Jito. Tenmu died before it was finished, and after Jito took the throne construction went ahead in the new capital, Fujiwara-kyo. The Shoku Nihongi records that the main image, Yakushi Nyorai, had its eye-opening in 697 and that monks took up residence the following year. When the capital moved to Heijo-kyo in 710, the temple moved to its present site. In the Nara period it ranked among the four great temples of the realm, and its main halls and pagodas, fitted with skirt roofs, were called "Dragon Palace style."

The only building to survive from the original temple is the East Pagoda. Founded in 730, it is designated a National Treasure as the oldest surviving building in Heijo-kyo. It looks six stories tall but is actually three, each story fitted with a small skirt roof (mokoshi). The rhythm of large and small roofs has earned it the nickname "frozen music." In 1528 a fire set in warfare destroyed the Golden Hall, the West Pagoda and the Lecture Hall, leaving only the East Pagoda. The layout with a central Golden Hall and two pagodas to east and west began at Yakushi-ji and is called the "Yakushi-ji style."

The Toin-do is a Kamakura-period hall built in 1285. It is a single-story hip-and-gable building, seven bays wide and four deep, with a tiled roof. It originally faced south and was turned to face west between 1729 and 1733. The bracket sets keep the traditional Japanese style, while the hall omits horizontal tie beams (nageshi) and uses other beams in their place, with paneled doors and carved beam ends, adopting new designs of its day. Inside, an aisle runs around the central core, a plan thought to continue the tradition of early halls. It is regarded as a leading example of a Kamakura hall that kept tradition. Comparing it with the Tenpyo-era East Pagoda shows clearly how roofs and halls differ.

Rebuilding the complex began in 1968, when the abbot Takada Koin started a drive of sutra-copying donations. The goal of one million copies was reached in 1976 and the Golden Hall was dedicated; the West Pagoda was rebuilt in 1981, the Lecture Hall in 2003 and the Refectory in 2017. The temple holds nine National Treasures and twenty-six Important Cultural Properties. The old East Pagoda standing beside the brightly colored West Pagoda is the view that represents Yakushi-ji today. Looking at the two pagodas of the same form while keeping in mind the gap of nearly 1,300 years makes it easier to grasp the original design and the aim of the reconstruction.