Todai-ji

Tōdai-ji, the Great Eastern Temple, lies on the eastern edge of Nara Park, at the foot of the Wakakusa and Kasuga hills. It was conceived by Emperor Shōmu in the 740s as the centre of a system of state-sponsored provincial temples (kokubun-ji) throughout Japan, meant to protect the country through Buddhism at a time of epidemics, famine and rebellion. Today it is the head temple of the Kegon school.

The Great Buddha Hall (Daibutsuden) houses the Daibutsu, a seated bronze figure of the cosmic Buddha Vairocana (Birushana) about 15 m high, flanked by two bodhisattvas. The present hall, completed in 1709, is about a third narrower than the 8th-century original but remains one of the largest wooden buildings in the world. Its approach passes through the Great South Gate, guarded by two wooden Kongō Rikishi figures more than 8 m tall carved in 1203 by the workshops of Unkei and Kaikei.

On the hillside to the east stand the Nigatsu-dō, venue of the Omizutori ceremony, and the Hokke-dō, one of the oldest buildings on the site, with Nara-period statues. Deer from the surrounding park roam freely up to the temple gates.

Emperor Shōmu issued his decree for the Great Buddha in 743. After an attempt elsewhere, casting began in Nara in 747, and the statue's eye-opening ceremony in 752 was attended by monks from as far away as India. The monk Rōben served as first abbot, and the popular preacher Gyōki raised support among the people. The temple was burned by Taira forces in 1180 and rebuilt under the monk Chōgen; it was burned again during fighting in 1567. The present Great Buddha Hall was completed in 1709, and the statue itself is a patchwork of original parts and later repairs.

Tōdai-ji stands for the Nara-period ideal of a state protected by Buddhism, and for the capacity of the early Japanese state to mobilise resources on a vast scale. The eye-opening of 752 was one of the great ceremonies of ancient East Asia, and objects used in it are kept in the Shōsō-in, the temple's former treasury behind the Great Buddha Hall.

The Shuni-e, better known as Omizutori, has been held at the Nigatsu-dō every year since the 8th century without interruption; during the first two weeks of March monks run along the balcony with giant burning torches, and in the night of 12–13 March water is drawn from a sacred well. The ceremony is regarded in Nara as the herald of spring.