Shin-Yakushiji Temple

A temple built for an ailing emperor

Shin-Yakushiji Temple (新薬師寺, also written Shinyakushiji) is a Kegon Buddhist temple in Takabatake, Nara City, Nara Prefecture, founded by Empress Kōmyō in 747, whose Nara-period main hall was designated a National Treasure in 1952. Kōmyō built it to pray for the recovery of her husband, Emperor Shōmu, and the four Kamakura-period structures around it, the South Gate, East Gate, Belfry and Jizo Hall, are each designated an Important Cultural Property. The temple's mountain name is Nichirinzan.

The name trips up almost every first-time visitor. Shin-Yakushiji is not a branch or successor of Yakushiji in the Nishinokyō area of western Nara. Both are dedicated to Yakushi, the Buddha of healing, but they were founded separately. In the eighth century it was also known as Kōzen Yakushiji or Kōyakuji.

The temple's own account starts in the middle of the Great Buddha project. Shōmu vowed to cast a colossal Rushana Buddha in 743 and began work at Shigaraki, then abandoned the site in 745 after a run of wildfires and earthquakes and returned to Heijō-kyō. Work restarted due east of the palace, on the ground now occupied by Tōdai-ji. Around that time the emperor fell ill. Rites of repentance before Yakushi were held in the hills around the capital, seven Yakushi statues were ordered for the capital and the provinces, and Kōmyō founded Shin-Yakushiji at the foot of Mount Kasuga and Mount Takamado.

The lost golden hall lies under a university campus

The original centre of Shin-Yakushiji Temple was a golden hall nine bays wide. Inside stood seven seated Yakushi figures, each flanked by two attendant bodhisattvas, with the twelve divine generals on guard. Written records also name an ordination platform, a repentance hall, an administrative compound, a bathhouse, an image workshop and a pair of pagodas.

A storm brought the golden hall down in 962, and its statues were lost with it. Excavations have since placed it about 150 metres west of the present main hall and slightly to the south, on the campus of Nara University of Education, and shown that it ran some 60 metres from east to west. Walk the modest precinct today, then picture a single building 60 metres long a short stroll away, and the scale of the eighth-century temple comes into focus.

At some point after the collapse, a hall on higher ground at the eastern side of the site came to serve as the main hall. That building survives. In the Kamakura period the South Gate, Belfry, Jizo Hall and East Gate were added around it, giving the grounds the shape they still have: one Nara-period hall ringed by medieval gates and small halls.

Five designated buildings and the statues in the main hall

All five buildings were protected early. The main hall was designated in 1897 under the Ancient Shrines and Temples Preservation Law and became a National Treasure in 1952. The Belfry followed in 1898, the South Gate in 1901, and the Jizo Hall and East Gate in 1917; all four are now Important Cultural Properties.

Most visitors come for what stands inside the main hall. A wooden seated Yakushi Nyorai, dated between the late Nara and early Heian periods, sits at the centre, surrounded by twelve clay figures of the divine generals from the Nara period. Both are National Treasures; one of the twelve generals is a Shōwa-era replacement and sits outside the designation. Tradition holds that the generals were brought from Iwabuchi-dera, a temple that once stood at the foot of Mount Takamado.

The buildings fall into two periods only: the Nara-period hall and four Kamakura structures. None of the five dates from the Heian period, which fits the gap between the golden hall's collapse in the 10th century and the medieval rebuilding.

How the grounds are laid out

The South Gate is the entrance. Pass through it and the long, low main hall fills the view ahead, with the Belfry in front of it to the right and the Jizo Hall in front of it to the left, two Kamakura buildings bracketing the Nara-period roof. The East Gate stands on the eastern edge of the grounds and is not used as an entrance.

Everything is close together. A full circuit of the main hall takes a few minutes, the Belfry and Jizo Hall line the approach, and the East Gate comes into view from inside once you walk around the east side of the main hall. The pages for each building cover what to look for and what can and cannot be seen.

Repentance rites on 8 January and 8 April

Twice a year, on 8 January and 8 April, monks perform the Yakushi repentance rite before the main image, confessing faults and praying for peace, the same kind of ritual that lay behind the temple's founding. According to the Nara City Tourism Association, monks from Tōdai-ji take part in both.

The April rite is the one to see. A daytime service begins at 5:00 p.m., and at 7:00 p.m. eleven pine torches light the monks' way to the hall in the ceremony known as Otaimatsu, followed by the scattering of paper petals and the recitation of the names of the gods. It is the one night of the year when the grounds are lit by fire.

Visiting and getting there

Shin-Yakushiji Temple is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with no regular closing days, though it occasionally closes for services and posts notice on its official website. Admission for individuals is 600 yen for adults and university students, 350 yen for high school and junior high school students, and 150 yen for elementary school children. Groups of 30 or more pay 550, 300 and 120 yen respectively. Photography is not permitted inside the main hall.

From JR Nara Station or Kintetsu Nara Station, take the Nara Kotsu city loop bus to the Wariishi-cho stop. The temple puts the walk from there at about 10 minutes uphill; the Nara City Tourism Association gives 15 minutes on the bus and 15 minutes on foot, which is more realistic if you stop to look around the old Takabatake lanes. A taxi from either station takes about 10 minutes.

Drivers can use the temple's free car park, which has room for 15 cars according to the tourism association. The address is 1352 Takabatake-cho, Nara City; telephone 0742-22-3736.