Gangō-ji Audio Guide

Gangō-ji: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Gangō-ji

   Welcome to Gangō-ji, written 元興寺 in Japanese, in the old town of Naramachi in Nara. This is one of the first Buddhist temples in Japan, and it was ranked among the powerful Seven Great Temples of Nara. Here is the twist that makes it so interesting. The great temple of the past was once vast, but most of it is gone. Today the old town of Naramachi occupies most of what used to be its grounds. So as you walk, you are moving through a neighborhood that grew on top of a temple's story. What survives is a precious remnant. It includes the old monks' quarters and part of a lecture hall, along with a hall that holds a mandala of paradise. Alongside it are the marked spots where other parts of the complex once stood. Over the next few minutes I will take you from the temple's beginnings in the Asuka region, through its great fire, to the hall where worshippers still come today.

2. 02

   From Asuka to the New Capital

   Gangō-ji's story begins before Nara was even a capital. In the sixth century, Soga no Umako founded a temple called Asukadera, also known as Hōkō-ji, in the Asuka region. It is described as the oldest full-scale Buddhist temple in Japan. Buddhism itself arrived with a debate. Tradition tells of Emperor Kinmei looking at a Buddha image sent from a land to the west and asking his ministers whether it should be worshipped. He found its face more beautiful than anything he had seen. Soga no Iname urged him to worship it, while others at court opposed the idea. The Soga family became champions of the new faith, and Umako's temple grew out of that tradition. Then the capital moved. When Heijō-kyō, the capital at Nara, was built, the temple was relocated and rebuilt within the new city. That is how Gangō-ji came to stand in Nara, and it joined the group known as the Seven Great Temples of the southern capital. So when you stand here, you are standing in a temple that carries the memory of Japan's earliest Buddhist foundation.

3. 03

   Decline, Fire and a Town Within the Temple

   How does a vast temple disappear? Slowly, and then suddenly. The decline began in the late 700s, when the imperial capital moved from Nara to Kyoto. The court gradually stopped funding the temples of Nara, Gangō-ji included, and its grounds and buildings were lost over many centuries. The next major blow came in the autumn of 1451. Angry peasant farmers stormed into Nara to demand debt relief, and they set fire to houses during the rioting. The flames spread to the temple, and a devastating fire leveled nearly the entire complex. By the early seventeenth century the neighborhood of Naramachi was fully taking shape across the old grounds. But the temple left its fingerprints on the map. Imamikado-chō, Shimomikado-chō and Wakido-chō carry the names of temple gates that once stood here. Tsuijinouchi-chō means the town inside the wall, and it lies near the old outer wall of the complex. The history might have been forgotten if not for Murai Kodō, who lived from 1681 to 1749. He was a barber-surgeon and local historian who took an interest in the area around Gangō-ji.

4. 04

   The Gokuraku-dō and the Pure Land Mandala

   The living heart of Gangō-ji today is the Gokuraku-in, also called Gokurakubō. It is the Shingon-Ritsu successor to the ancient temple. The old monks' quarters and part of the lecture hall survive here. In the Middle Ages this precinct was known as Gangō-ji Gokurakubō, and in early modern times as Nanto Gokurakuin. At its center stands the Gokuraku-dō, also called the Mandala-dō. Its principal object of devotion is the Chiko Mandala. This is a picture of the Pure Land with Amida Nyorai in the middle, drawn by Chiko, a scholar-monk of the Nara period. From the late Heian period it drew worshippers, at a time when people believed the end of the world was approaching and faith in Amida's Pure Land was rising. This hall and the neighboring Zen room are designated National Treasures. They are also part of the World Heritage Site Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara. The Gokuraku-in was renamed Gangō-ji Gokurakubō in 1955, and simply Gangō-ji in 1977. Its precinct became a National Historic Site in 1965, one of three parts of the ancient complex to be protected.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Before you move on, remember that the temple you are visiting is only one piece of a much larger puzzle. Two other parts of the ancient complex are also protected as national historic sites. One is the ruins of the East Pagoda, the base of the five-story pagoda of the Tōdaitō-in precinct, in the Shiba Araya-chō area of Naramachi. The other is the site of the Kotōin, part of the Western Small Pagoda precinct. So let your walk through Naramachi become a kind of treasure hunt. Notice the street names that echo temple gates and walls. Think of the lost pagoda foundation as the memory of a skyline that no longer exists. Then look again at the quiet hall that survived the centuries. What else in these lanes might be an echo of the great temple that once filled them?