Hôryû-ji 法隆寺

Buddhist temple / japanischer Tempel

Ikoma / Nara prefecture

The history of the founding of Hôryû-ji begins at the end of the Asuka period (583-710), when Empress Suiko (554-628) and Crown Prince Shôtoku (574-622) fulfilled Emperor Yômei’s (540-587) wish and posthumously erected a Buddhist statue of the “Buddha of Medicine” Yakushi-nyôrai and a temple for him. Together with Shôtoku’s Shitennô-ji, built in Ôsaka (then “Naniwa”) in 593, these two holy places became the most important centres for the spread of the religion adopted from China in Japan. Today, the oldest preserved wooden buildings in the world stand on the temple grounds in Nara prefecture. UNESCO “World Heritage Site” since 1993.