Yamada-dera Temple Site

The temple of Soga no Kura-yamada no Ishikawa-maro

This is the site of a temple founded at the wish of Soga no Kura-yamada no Ishikawa-maro.

Although Ishikawa-maro belonged to the Soga clan, in the Isshi Incident of 645 he sided with Prince Naka-no-Ōe and Nakatomi no Kamatari and joined the plot to kill Soga no Iruka. In the new reform government he served as Minister of the Right.

In 649, however, he was suspected of rebellion and took his own life at this temple, which was still under construction. The Nihon Shoki (Japan's oldest official chronicle, compiled in 720) records that his innocence was later established. Work on the temple stopped for a time, then resumed in the reign of Emperor Tenmu, and the temple was completed.

1982: out of the earth

What makes this temple site special is an excavation carried out in 1982.

The east corridor, which had collapsed and lain buried in the ground, was found in excellent condition. Pillars, lattice windows (renji-mado) and bracket sets were unearthed lying in the same order as when the corridor fell.

There is no other case in which so many parts of an Asuka-period wooden building have survived together. It became a first-class source, letting us study actual architecture from an age older than Hōryū-ji. The finds are on display at the Asuka Historical Museum of the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties.

One pagoda, one golden hall

The temple's buildings were laid out in a straight north–south line: south gate, middle gate, pagoda, golden hall and lecture hall. This arrangement, with the pagoda and golden hall one behind the other, is called the Shitennō-ji style.

Compared with Asuka-dera's one pagoda and three golden halls, or Kawara-dera's one pagoda and two golden halls, this plan is simple. Temples with completely different layouts were being built close to one another in the same period.

Visiting

On 26 July 2026 it was inscribed as a World Heritage Site, as one of the component parts of "Asuka-Fujiwara: Archaeological Sites of Japan's Ancient Capitals and Related Properties."

The site is not in Asuka Village but in the city of Sakurai. Take a bus from Kintetsu Sakurai Station to the "Yamadadera-ato" stop; the site is right there.

The site has been laid out so that you can see the foundation stones and building platforms. Admission is free.