Except amigos, we have a bit of a problemo. Our tale took place shortly after the reign of Emperor Bidatsu (r. 572 to 585), during whose lifetime we have the events leading up to Dojo's birth. The construction of Gango-ji Temple itself began in 588 after Bidatsu's death and was completed in 596, making it one of Japan's oldest Buddhist temples. Dojo was an acolyte there sometime after. Unfortunately for us, the date we need to contend with is 718, because it's this date about 100 years after our tale when Gango-ji was moved 30 kilometers north to where it is now.
Something Old
That's right. In Dojo's time Gango-ji was known as Hoko-ji (法興寺), where now sits another temple, also called Hoko-ji but more commonly known as Asuka-dera (飛鳥寺). The original account of our tale comes via the Nihon Ryoiki (日本霊異記, Ghostly Strange Records from Japan), which itself dates back to the late 8th/early 9th century. Aside from the "new" Gango-ji's close proximity to Kionzan and the Crossroad of Suspicion, one can presume from the date published that the author was referring to the temple's current site rather than the temple that the real Dojo would have been familiar with. If we use the old site as our "Gango-ji" the story only now works with some serious cross-country efforts on the part of the main characters.
Map courtesy of Google Maps
So is there anything interesting about Asuka-dera that makes it worth a visit?
Well.... sure. It's pretty good. One of the temple's residents who didn't make the trip north was the Daibutsu, or "Great Buddha" statue. It's the oldest extant Buddhist image in Japan where the date of construction is known: 605. (Zenkoji Temple in Nagano claims to hold the first examples of Buddhist statuary brought from Korea to Japan the previous century.)
What may interest us more is that Asuka-dera seems to be one of the earliest repositories in Japan for relics of the Shakyamuni Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha). The relics were placed in 593 within the foundation stone of the temple's pagoda by Soga no Umako, an early Japanese proponent of Buddhism. The excavated remains of the objects buried under the Asuka-dera pagoda are now housed in the Asuka Historical Museum, about a fifteen-minute walk north of the temple. Both the temple and the museum are located in the village of Asuka, which contains many wonderful sites from the Asuka Period. If you're fascinated by ancient Japanese culture, then I definitely recommend a trip.
Asuka village is best accessed from the Kintetsu Line. The following map shows three stations you can use to get to the museum and the temple (circled). You can rent a bicycle from outside Kashiharajingu-mae and Asuka Stations, but the trip makes for a nice walk as well. There are many other sites to see around here, so Google yourself up an itinerary and enjoy a day exploring the area. Perhaps we'll revisit it again in a future entry.
Map courtesy of Google Maps
Something New... er
Putting ourselves back on familiar ground in the north, our "something new" is Shin-yakushi-ji (新薬師寺), a temple east of the Crossroad of Suspicion. It's technically newer than the latest incarnation of Gango-ji, and the first Chinese character in its name shin generally translates as "new." (The temple was actually founded in 747, and "shin" here is said to not have the meaning of new but "miraculous.")
Image courtesy of Google Maps
Something Borrowed
Shin-yakushi-ji does however have a belfry that houses a rather splendid bell. While the belfry was constructed in 1279, the bell itself is much older and reportedly the very one that once hung at Gango-ji during the time our tale took place. In fact, if you look closely you can still see where the demon dragged his fingernails across it.
I'm not sure how Shin-yakushi-ji ended up with Gango-ji's bell, though many of these behemoths are surprisingly well-traveled. This one dates back to the Nara Period, meaning it could have come via Gango-ji. There is a tiny window where the bell may have started out at Hoko-ji before making the move north, but Dojo, the demon and everyone else were long gone by then. (Can I borrow some imagination too?)
Shin-yakushi-ji is about a 40-minute walk from JR Nara Stn. or Kintetsu-Nara Stn., or a 20 min. walk from the Crossroad of Suspicion.
Map courtesy of Google Maps
Something Blue
I must apologize since it has been quite a while since the last post. No doubt you have all been holding your breaths in anticipation waiting for this to come out, so your faces I'm sure must be extremely blue by now. Your humble driver has been out adventuring for your continued entertainment and will do his best to pick up the pace in the weeks to come!
Driver Gragma (yokaitourbus "at" mail "dot" com)
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