Our 189th entry in this blog is our trip to Kofukuji Temple in Nara, Japan. Kofukuji used to be the family temple of the Fujiwara, the most powerful aristocratic clan during much of the Nara and Heian Periods.

The temple features several buildings of great historic value, including a five-storied pagoda and a three-storied pagoda. At 50 meters, the five-storied pagoda is Japan’s second tallest wooden pagoda, just seven meters shorter than the five-storied pagoda at Kyoto’s Toji Temple.

While entrance to Kofukuji’s temple grounds is free, there are three areas that require paying an entrance fee: The Central Golden Hall, the Eastern Golden Hall and Kofukuji’s National Treasure Museum. We did not enter in any of them for now as we still wished to visit other sites here in Nara.

Kofukuji’s main temple hall, the Central Golden Hall, was destroyed by fire roughly 300 years ago and was not rebuilt in its original size until recently. After many years of reconstruction, the hall was reopened to the public in October 2018. East of the Central Golden Hall stands the Eastern Golden Hall which houses a large statue of the Yakushi Buddha.

And that was a small info about the Kofukuji Temple I got from brochures and sites. haha 🙂 It was a quick but very informative visit. We love walking around Nara and meet lots of deers 🙂 Until next time!