1300-year-old Pagoda at Horyu-ji temple

Please do spend a day at Horyu-ji temple, the very repository of Japanese ancient culture from the 7th to 8th century. Every fall, I have a privilege to spend two hours showing the temple to my guests and then take them to a small but very special restaurant near To-in, the east compound of the temple. The restaurant is a remodeled Japanese house, where I’m sure you can experience living Japan. The meal is very healthy and tasty with rustic Nara touch. You might be able to feel that you are invited to someone’s house in Nara.

Since I plan well (believe me), the two-hour tour turns out to be fun but if you are alone, no rush and spend at least three hours or more. Besides the ancient architecture, the Daiho-zo-in treasure house is worth visiting and staying long enough. Each exhibit is hard to miss. One of the clay statues has a part of its clay peeled but thank to that, the wooden core underneath became visible. Amazingly, there you see carved wooden toes, which would never have been witnessed by anyone without the accidental peel. The admission is included in the ticket you may purchase.

I recommend you visit on foot the other two temples nearby, Hokki-ji temple and Horin-ji temple. At Hokki-ji, you can get to see the oldest three storied pagoda in Japan. At Horin-ji, the three storied pagoda, the labor of love, reconstructed by master carpenter NISHIOKA Tsunekazu, the last master carpenter exclusively for Horyu-ji greets you.

I need to introduce this respected man of great skill and his determined way of life in another article. What he did and what he said are so inspirational. But here, let me suggest you go to “Horyu-ji i center” conveniently located on the approach to the temple and try the second floor. I do not remember whether the English panels are in place or not. But please go there and take a look at how ancient carpenters exerted their wisdom to build these temple buildings 1300 years ago, claimed to be the oldest set of wooden buildings in the world.

Master carpenter NISHIOKA revived old carpentry tools, one of which was Yarigan-na (a kind of plane), which should be displayed there. These tools were necessary for the great Showa period restoration work of Horyu-ji that lasted quite a while, hampered by WWⅡ. But he had this luck of being able to engage in the restoration work through which he, at first hand, learned the ancient wisdom, how past restoration works were conducted, and the marvel of Hinoki or Japanese cypress which has supported this great temple buildings for such a long time.

Trees are alive even after being felled to become lumber. They continue to have their unique characters. Master carpenters know how to handle them. They know right trees in right places. In case of mature Hinoki, they become stronger for the first 200 years or so and then taking more than 1000 years their strength comes back to be the same when they were cut. That means the hinoki trees at Horyu-ji are as strong as they were felled 1300 years back.

The Shin-bashira (Heart PIllar) of the pagoda at Horyu-ji was erected in the oldest way. It stood from the shin-so stone buried under the ground, two to three meters deep from the podium on which the pagoda stands. But rather soon, there happened trouble. Due to humidity the bottom of the pillar became hollow and it had to be mended by stuffing the cavity with stones and sun-dried bricks.

Well before the restoration work in the Showa period in the 20th century, a very large cavity had been found and in secret researchers went in there entrusted by the temple. Now it’s an open secret. The tower sustained itself with that large hole at the bottom of the heart pillar for more than 1000 years. At the restoration work, the cavity was mended with concrete and now the heart pillar stands on the shin-so base stone on the podium.

See the long-extending eaves and how dimensions at the top story are reduced in half of the first.