Shimotsuke Yakushiji Temple Site

One of the Three Ordination Platforms of Ancient Japan

The Shimotsuke Yakushiji Temple Site (下野薬師寺跡) is the site of the ancient Shimotsuke Yakushiji temple in Shimotsuke City, Tochigi Prefecture, designated a Historic Site in 1921.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs lists it under the criterion for temple and shrine sites; further areas were added on 18 September 2025.

The designation text notes that its founding is variously dated to the reigns of Temmu and Mommu, that it certainly existed by 749, and that it was one of Japan's three ordination platforms.

History

According to Shimotsuke City, the temple is thought to have been founded in the late seventh century by Shimotsukeno Asomi Komaro, a court official who served Emperors Temmu and Jito and helped compile the Taiho Code. In recognition of his service the state developed it as a key temple of Buddhist policy in eastern Japan.

After Ganjin came to Japan, monks had to receive formal ordination, and platforms for it were set at three temples: Todaiji in the capital region, Kanzeonji in Kyushu and Shimotsuke Yakushiji in the east. It became the centre of Buddhism in eastern Japan, ordaining monks from Kanto and Tohoku.

What to Look For

The city notes that a great fire in the mid-ninth century destroyed the central buildings, and that the ordination platform lost its status as new sects began ordaining monks themselves. The priest Jimyo revived the temple in the Kamakura period; it is said to have been renamed Ankokuji in the fourteenth century, and the temple chronicle records that it burned in a war in 1570.

It was designated together with the Ashikaga Gakko site and the Shimotsuke Provincial Temple site, among the first national Historic Sites in Tochigi. Excavation by the prefecture began in 1966 and has continued since.

Visiting the Shimotsuke Yakushiji Temple Site

Parts of the site have been restored; the Agency's photographs show a reconstructed corridor. Check visiting information with Shimotsuke City.