Monograph No. 5
ASUKADERA TEMPLE SITE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY CARRIED OUT IN 1956-57
NARA NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CULTURAL PROPERTIES
NARA, 1958
CONTENTS
Page
Chapter I. Introduction 1
Chapter II. History of the Temple 2
Chapter III. Excavation 7
1. Progress of Excavation 7
2. Diary of Excavation 10
Chapter IV. Sites 15
1. General Remarks 15
2. Central Main Hall 16
3. Pagoda 17
4. East and West Main Halls 18
5. Middle Gate 19
6. Corridors 21
7. South Gate 21
8. Stone-paved Ground 22
9. Lecture Hall 22
10. West Gale 23
11. Tile Kiln 24
12. Remains predating Erection of Temple 24
Chapter V. Artifacts 27
1. Reliquary and Accompanying Objects 27
2. Tiles and Others 32
Chapter VI. Architectural Study of the Sites 37
Chapter VII. Concluding Remarks 47
English Summary ix
ASUKADERA TEMPLE SITE
ASUKADERA TEMPLE, which is the earliest Buddhist temple built in Japan, is situated at Asuka, Asuka-mura, Takaichi-gun, Nara Prefecture. Excavations were conducted at the site in 1956 and 1957 mainly by the staff of the Nara National Institute of Cultural Properties.
In 1954, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry began to build an irrigation waterway for the Yamato Plain. Many historical monuments, including the important sites of palaces and temples of the 6th and 7th centuries being located on its projected line, anxiety was entertained by the public that some of them might be destroyed unless some suitable measures be taken immediately. Excavation of this temple site is the first outcome of the protection program. In 1955, the southern half of Nara Basin was photographed from the air and a part of it was enlarged by aerial survey and a 1/1000 map prepared. The first excavation was begun in May, 1956 and continued for two months. The Central Main Hall, the Pagoda south of it, the West Main Hall west of the Pagoda, the Lecture Hall north of the Central Main Hall and the West Gate west of the West Main Hall were exposed. The second excavation was carried out for about three months from November of the same year, revealing the Middle Gale, the South Gate, both south of the Pagoda, the Paved Ground before the South Gate, the East Main Hall east of the Pagoda, the connections of the Corridors with the Middle Gate and a part of the Corridor east of the East Main Hall. The third and last excavation, conducted for about thirty days in July and August, 1957, disclosed the central part of the Pagoda, the north-western corner of the Lecture Hall and a part of the North Corridor.
Though the temple is important in the history of the 6th and 7th centuries, little had been known, up to the excavation, about the present state of Asukadera except a bronze image of Sakyamuni housed in a clumsy wooden building, named Angoin, and fragments of old tiles collected from time to time in the neighbouring field. According to the old records, the building of this temple was started in 588, under the guidance of craftsmen who came from Paekche (Korea). On 15 January, 593, a reliquary was placed on the projected site of the Pagoda and the following day the central pillar of the Pagoda was set up. The Halls and Pagoda were completed in 596 and the main statue was finished in 609. For several centuries after its brilliant start, the temple gradually fell into ruin, and in 1196 a fire destroyed the Central Main Hall and the Pagoda. The ruined buildings have never been restored.
The layout of the main part of Asukadera is as follows. The centre line of the temple is orientated, not to the magnetic north, but to the true north. On this centre line, the following buildings are arranged from south to north. First is the Middle Gate whose platform measures 16.4m×14m. Then 37.5m. north of the Gale (the distance between buildings is measured from centre to centre ; the same rule applies to those that follow) the Pagoda is erected on a platform 12m. square. North of the Pagoda, 26.6m. apart, stands the Central Main Hall, with a platform 21.2m×17.6m. On east and west sides of the Pagoda, two Main Halls are situated, each 27.4m. apart from the Pagoda. These two buildings are the same size, standing on platforms 20m.×15.6m. each. The Corridor, 6m. wide, starts from both flanks of the Middle Gate and encloses the Pagoda and the three halls. North of the Corridior is the Lecture Hall, with a platform 39.4m.×22.6m. South of the Middle Gate, only 18m. apart, is the South Gate with a platform 10.4m.×8.2m. The West Gate is situated 91m. west from the center line of the temple and its platform measures 14.4m.×9.2m. South of the South Gate is a paved road 2m. wide and 29m. long and at its southern end is a paved ground.
This layout of the temple buildings ‐ pagoda surrounded by three main halls ‐ was little expected by the researchers, althought a ruined temple having a similar plan was found at Seiganri, Korea. It has hitherto been known that two different temple layouts were in use before the Nara Period. One is the so-called “Shitennoji” plan, arranging Middle Gate, Pagoda, Main Hall and Lecture Hall all in a straight line, and the other is the so-called “Horyuji” plan, arranging Pagoda and Main Hall side by side. The discovery of this new layout is a revelation to those interested in Japanese architectural history.
The double platforms on which the East and West Main Halls were built suggest a construction of the buildings quite unfamiliar to Japanese architects. The researchers are unfortunately unable to reconstruct the buildings in their entirety, since the upper platforms were completely ruined. But the lower platforms with small base stones placed at intervals recall the similar sites discovered at the old capitals of Koguryo and Paekche (both Korea).
The details of construction of the Central Main Hall, Pagoda and Gates are unknown, but it is presumed that they were not so very different as a whole from those of Horyuji Temple, which are the earliest wooden buildings in Japan, presumably built towards the end of the 7th century. A careful examination of the minor details of the Asukadera sites, however, indicates some points utterly divergent from Horyuji architecture, which distinguish the Asukadera structures from the Buddhist edifices of the Nara period built after Horyuji.
Korean influence was also noticeable in the tiles used in the temple, as if to indorse the recorded statements that they were made under the guidance of Paekche craftsmen. The majority of the round tiles for eaves discovered from the site have a ten-petaled lotus-flower pattern whose parallels are found in Paekche. Also the construction of the kiln where the tiles were fired bears marked resemblance to that which was used in Paekche.
The excavation revealed how deeply indebted was the building of this temple to the technicians who came from Korea. The temple layout, the double platforms, both hitherto unknown in Japan, the tiles and their kiln are all the counterparts of Korean civilization. But side by side with these facts, there are several indications that the architects adopted the traditional art and craft of Japan. This adoption necessarily caused the modification of the original culture to some extent, creating the newly blended civilization of the Asuka Period, which prevailed at the time of the erection of this temple.
At the centre of the Pagoda, about 60cm. below the surface of the ground, a stone container was unearthed. Out of this came a wooden vessel that contained a small gilt-bronze reliquary and about 2,500 pieces of glass and other beads. On four sides of the wooden vessel, an inscription is written by which it is known that the reliquary and beads were taken out of the niche of the central base stone in 1196 when the Pagoda was ruined by fire and immediately afterwards reburied. The central pillar base stone of granite, 2m. across, was found 2m. below the stone container. At the centre of the stone, there is a pocket 30cm. square and 20cm. deep and in its east wall a niche, 12cm. square, is cut to hold the reliquary. On the surface of the base stone, there were scattered small thin plates and beads of gold and silver, curved beads of jade and gold rings, apparently overlooked by the excavators at the end of the 12th century. Also overlooked by them and found in suit were a suit of iron armour, several dozens of gilt-bronze metal objects and other articles. This is a very important discovery of the earliest instance of reliquary burial in Japan, showing how pious people dedicated treasures and other objects at the erection ceremony of the holy tower. From the archaeological point of view, the coincidence of the inventory of the discovered objects with that of the objects found from tombs of the Late Tumulus Age is no less interesting and significant. The absolute date of the objects (593 A.D. when the Pagoda was erected) affords an authentic chronological landmark for students of the Tumulus Age, who are apt to cherish an illusion that the Late Tumulus Age is much earlier than Early Historic Times.
Since the present excavation, was conducted in the limited area of the principal part of the temple, many questions are left unsolved for future survey, such as the original area of the temple precinct, sites of minor buildings including monastery, dining hall, gates and others.
昭和三十三年三月二十日
奈良國立文化財研究所學報第五冊
飛鳥寺發掘調査報告
