Photo Gallery

Kōfuku-ji Temple - 興福寺 (built 669 onward)

In 669 AD a consort of the wealthy statesman Fuijiwara-no-Kamatari had a temple built in what is now Kyoto province as a prayer for his recovery from a serious illness. The temple was used primarily by the Fujiwara family and was known as Yamashina-dera. It was moved after a few years to rural Nara province, and when the city of Nara became the capitol of Japan, Yamashina-dera was one of the first temples to relocate there. Kōfuku-ji gradually became a major temple due to its ties to the powerful Fujiwara family. The nearby Shinto shrine of Kasuga Daija was run by the monks at Kōfuku-ji during this time. By the 16th century the temple’s fortunes had declined and at the time of the Meiji restoration the government mandated the separation of Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Shinto was given special benefits from the state, while Buddhism was repressed as a foreign religion. Kōfuku-ji suffered great losses of historical treasures and of land during this period. Today Kōfuku-ji is the headquarters of the Hosso sect.

Kōfuku-ji is one of the head temples of the Hosso (“dharma characteristics’) sect of Buddhism. The Hosso sect is also know as the Yuishiki (“mind only”) sect. The teaching was first brought to China from India by the T’ang Dynasty monk Genjoh (Chinese: Hsuan Tsang), whose travels are well known from his journal entitled, "Journey to the West” (Chinese: His yu chi). Genjoh transmitted the Hosso teachings, as found in the Yuishiki-ron (“Treatise on Mind Only”), to his disciple Jion Daishi (Chinese: Tz’u-en Ta-shih), who is considered the founder of the Hosso school in China. These doctrines were introduced to Kōfuku-ji by the monk Genboh (d. 746), who studied in China from 716-735.

Kōfuku-ji has several halls, which are on the UNESCO list of world treasures. One is a five-story wooden pagoda that stands over 150 feet tall. It was first built in 730 and the current building dates to 1426. Another is the Southern Octagonal Hall which was built in 813 and was last rebuilt in 1741. The main hall of the temple is known as the Central Gold Hall, but this is currently undergoing renovation and is closed. The East Gold Hall, however, is open and contains some of Kōfuku-ji’s most famous treasures. These include bronze statues of the Medicine Buddha (Bhaisajya-guru or Yakushi Nyorai) and two attendants, The Bodhisattvas Nikko and Gakko, the four heavenly devas, and the twelve heavenly generals.