Tōdai-ji Temple

Timeline

1. 728

   Founding of Konshu-ji

   Emperor Shomu and Empress Komyo establish a small hermitage at the foot of Mt Wakakusa with nine resident monks to mourn their late infant son Prince Motoi.

2. 743

   Edict to Cast the Great Buddha

   From Shigaraki-no-miya, Emperor Shomu commands the casting of a Great Buddha as a citizen-participation project to be aided by 'a single twig of grass, a single handful of earth'.

3. 752

   Eye-Opening Ceremony

   The Indian monk Bodhisena presides over an international Buddhist rite attended by more than ten thousand priests, with Shomu and the imperial family among the dedicators.

4. 758

   First Daibutsuden Completed

   Six years after the eye-opening, the original Great Buddha Hall is finally finished, completing the original Tenpyo temple precinct.

5. 1180

   Taira Raid on Nara

   Taira no Shigehira's raid on Nara burns the Daibutsuden and topples the head of the Great Buddha; only the Hokke-do, Nigatsu-do and Tegai-mon survive.

6. 1195

   Chogen's Reconstruction

   Chogen repairs the Great Buddha with the help of the Song craftsman Chen Heqing and dedicates the rebuilt Daibutsuden with Minamoto no Yoritomo in attendance.

7. 1203

   Kongo Rikishi Carved

   Unkei, Kaikei and the Kei school complete the two 8.4-meter Kongo Rikishi guardians of the South Gate in only 69 days, a triumph of medieval sculpture.

8. 1567

   Battle of Tōdai-ji Daibutsuden

   Troops of Matsunaga Hisahide and the Miyoshi triumvirate burn the hall a second time and the Buddha loses its head, leaving it exposed for nearly a century.

9. 1692

   Second Eye-Opening Rite

   The monk Kokei completes the Edo repair of the Great Buddha, with the patronage of Shogun Tsunayoshi and his mother Keishoin, and a second eye-opening rite is held.

10. 1709

    Third Daibutsuden Completed

    Although reduced to about two-thirds of its Tenpyo width, the rebuilt hall remains one of the largest wooden buildings on earth and survives to the present day.

11. 1973-1980

    Showa Restoration

    A full re-tiling of the roof and reinforcement of the timber frame with concealed steel members secure the Daibutsuden against earthquakes.

12. December 1998

    UNESCO World Heritage Inscription

    The Daibutsuden, Nandaimon, Hokke-do and five other structures are inscribed as part of UNESCO's 'Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara'.

Detailed History

Tōdai-ji's origins trace to 738, when Emperor Shomu and Empress Komyo founded Konshu-ji at the foot of Mt Wakakusa to mourn their infant son Prince Motoi. Following Shomu's 741 edict on the provincial-temple system, Konshu-ji was elevated in 742 to head all provincial temples, taking the name Konkomyo-ji. On the 15th day of the 10th month of 743 (Tenpyo 15), from the temporary capital at Shigaraki-no-miya, Shomu commanded the casting of the Great Buddha; when the capital returned to Heijo-kyo in 745, the project moved to the present site. Casting began in 747 and the name 'Tōdai-ji' came into use; the protective Tamukeyama Hachimangu shrine followed in 749. On the 9th day of the 4th month of 752 (Tenpyo Shoho 4), the Indian monk Bodhisena led the eye-opening rite before more than ten thousand priests, and the first Daibutsuden was completed in 758. Despite Heian-era Nara Buddhist suppression, an 855 earthquake that toppled the Buddha's head, and fires, the temple kept its authority through the residency of Kukai and became 'temple of the eight schools'. In the 12th month of 1180 (Jisho 4), Taira no Shigehira's raid devastated both hall and image. Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa appointed Chogen as chief fundraiser; with the techniques of Song craftsman Chen Heqing, the Buddha was repaired, and an eye-opening rite was held in 1185 with Minamoto no Yoritomo in attendance, followed by the rebuilt Daibutsuden in 1195. In 1199 Chogen rebuilt the South Gate in Daibutsu-yo style; in 1203 Unkei, Kaikei and the Kei school sculpted its Kongo Rikishi guardians in 69 days. In 1567 (Eiroku 10), in the Battle of Tōdai-ji Daibutsuden, Matsunaga Hisahide and Miyoshi troops burned the hall again, and the Buddha lost its head. A temporary hall blew down in 1610, and the image lay exposed for nearly a century. In 1684 the monk Kokei began fundraising for repairs; with the support of shogun Tsunayoshi and his mother Keishoin, the Buddha was re-dedicated in 1692 and the third Daibutsuden in 1709 (Hoei 6). Reduced to about two-thirds of its Tenpyo width, the present hall remains among the largest wooden buildings on earth. The Kegon school became independent in 1879; major restorations followed in 1903-1913 and 1973-1980. In December 1998, eight structures — Daibutsuden, Nandaimon, Hokke-do and Tegai-mon among them — were inscribed as 'Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara'.

Cultural Significance

Tōdai-ji's standing as head temple of the Kegon school and headquarters of all provincial temples (Sokokubunji) under Shomu's national-temple system made it for centuries the closest thing to a Japanese state cathedral. Eight of its buildings — the Great Buddha Hall, South Gate, Bell Tower, Hokke-do, Hombo Kyoko sutra store, Tegai-mon, Kaisan-do and Nigatsu-do — are National Treasures; another fourteen are Important Cultural Properties. With its sculptural and decorative holdings, the temple's National Treasures and ICPs approach two hundred. For ordinary worshippers the colossal image is simply 'Daibutsu-san', a thousand-year nickname capturing the closeness many Japanese feel to the temple. Shomu's founding inscription — 'the wish that all living and growing things should flourish together' — became a Buddhist political testament responding to famine, plague and civil war. The temple's twin destructions in 1180 and 1567, each followed by the fundraising of Chogen and Kokei, formed one of Japan's great narratives of cultural resurrection. The 1998 UNESCO inscription placed Tōdai-ji at the core of an eight-site 'Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara' that includes Kofuku-ji, Kasuga Taisha, Gango-ji, Yakushi-ji, Toshodai-ji, the Heijo Palace site and Kasugayama primeval forest — the most concentrated landscape of Tenpyo civilization in Japan.

Architectural Details

The present Daibutsuden (Hoei 6 / 1709) is the third hall on this site — about 57 m wide, 50 m deep, 49 m tall, with a hip-and-gable tiled roof crowned at its front by a karahafu cusped gable. The original Tenpyo hall was some 88 m wide; the Kamakura rebuild reduced the width due to timber shortages, and the Edo rebuild contracted it further from eleven to seven bays, adding the karahafu to preserve monumentality. The structure is a hybrid of indigenous wayo, Chogen's Daibutsu-yo and Zenshu-yo styles, with dense layered brackets beneath the karahafu and immense crossing beams carrying the deep eaves — a high-water mark of Edo timber building. A pair of three-meter shibi finials silhouettes the hall against the sky from far across Nara Park. The South Gate (1199) is a textbook example of Daibutsu-yo, the Song-derived style Chogen introduced from China: a five-bay, three-entry, two-story gate whose columns are pierced through by horizontal tie-beams, with continuous inserted bracket arms (sashi-hijiki) supporting enormous eaves. The Hokke-do (Sangatsu-do) is the only surviving Tenpyo-era building of Tōdai-ji, a compound joining a hipped-roof main chamber to a gabled worship hall. Nigatsu-do, rebuilt in 1669, is a stage-style (kakezukuri) construction whose veranda projects from the hillside on tall pillars in the manner of Kiyomizu-dera.