Toshodai-ji,+Nara

=Toshodai-ji, Nara=

Toshodai-ji Photo Gallery

Background Info

Toshodai-ji Temple is the temple of the Chinese monk Jianzhen (Japanese call him Ganjin), who overcame five failed voyages and the loss of sight in both eyes to travel to Japan. In 759, after spending five years at Todai-ji Temple, Ganjin constructed a training hall for the Ritsu sect of Buddhism on the site of the former residence of Prince Niitabe. When it was first opened, it consisted only of a lecture hall, and a sutra repository and treasure house that were created through remodeling the former residence. Eventually rooms and lodging quarters were donated by supporters of Ganjin, and other buildings were constructed, including a warehouse, a dining hall, and a temporary main hall to house the principle image. Halls and towers were built after Ganjin's death as well, with the entire collection of buildings being completed at the beginning of the Heian Period. Of these, the main hall that is said to have been completed after Ganjin's death through the efforts of Nyoho, one of his disciples, and the lecture hall, which was the remodeled and relocated from the Nara Imperial Palace, are precious examples of Tempyo-style architecture.

Overshadowing much of this were the life and times of the founding priest Ganjin. In 742AD he was invited to spread Buddhism in Japan by Fusho and Eiso, former students of Buddhism in China Their desire was for Ganjin to accept such an offer as Japan then had no suitably qualified priests to undertake this task. When Ganjin decided to sail to Japan he failed on five separate occasions and when he eventually reached the Japanese archipelago in 753AD on his sixth attempt, he was already 66-years-old. In Japan, he spent his first five years in Todaiji Temple and the next five at Toshodaiji Temple before passing away in 763AD aged well over 70. With the decline of the Heian period, so too did hard times hit Toshodaiji Temple and it was not until the Kamakura period, when the priest Kakujo revived the temple, that the temple once again rose to national prominence.