It had the tremendously huge precincts. As long as the latest excavation has shown, it measured more than 150m from the east to west, and 330m from the north to south.
The temple compound was very rare in its layout of the buildings, and called “one pagoda with two worship halls style” or “Kawaharadera Temple style”. There was a lecture hall where monks studied Buddhist doctrines, that connected to their dormitory. The dormitory building surrounded the lecture hall from the three sides; east, west and north.
Although temple had heavily been appreciated for the national events at the Emperor Temmu’s reign, it disappeared from the front stage of the history thereafter.
Kawaharadera Temple, with little references to the Chronicles and topographies, left numbers of mysteries, while it was closely related to Kobo Daishi Kukai, the founder of the Shingon Sect of Esoteric Buddhism.
The temple later revived as Gufukuji Temple.
Gufukuji Temple took over Kawaharadera’s light of Buddhism, the relics, the 1,200 years of ordinary people’s belief, and one of the most nostalgic landscapes of Japan known for the Asuka breeze.
We look forward to seeing you here quietly, but with lots of excitement!
