Monograph No. 9
KAARADERA TEMPLE SITE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY CARRIED OUT IN 1957-1958
CONTENTS
Page
Chapter I. Introduction 1
Chapter II. History of Temple 3
1. Establishment of Temple 3
2. History after Establishment 4
Chapter III. Excavation 8
1. Progress of Excavation 8
2. Diary of Excavation 11
Chapter IV. Sites 16
1. Outline of Sites 16
2. Central Main Hall 16
3. West Main Hall 17
4. Pagoda 19
5. Middle Gate 21
6. Corridors 22
7. South Gale and Approach 25
8. Lecture Hall 25
9. Monks’ Dormitories 26
10. Western Gallery 29
11. Northern Building 29
12. North Gate of Tachibanadera and Mud Wall 30
13. Site Predating Erection of Temple 31
14. Original Topographical Condition of Site 32
Chapter V. Artifacts 35
1. Remains from Kaaradera 35
2. Remains Predating Erection of Temple 42
3. Remains from North Gate of Tachibanadera Temple 43
Chapter VI. Studies 46
1. Architectural Study of Site 46
2. Temple Layout 49
3. Temple Precinct and Its Relation to Jori System （条理制） 50
4. Concluding Remarks 53
English Summary ix
KAARADERA TEMPLE SITE
KAARADERA TEMPLE, which is situated at Kaara, Asuka-Mura, Takaichi-Gun, Nara Prefecture, was designated an “Historical Monument” by the Ministry of Education in 1919. According to the irrigation program of Yamato Plain which the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry designed in 1954, the main waterway is to pass through the designated area, which may involve the destruction of the site. In order to protect the important monument from ruin, the Cultural Properties Protection Committee decided to make a thorough study of the site beforehand so that the projected aqueduct may be constructed in such a way as to avoid the main part of the site as much as possible, and at the same time to make and keep a minute record of those parts which will have to be destroyed by the construction of the waterway. The research work was undertaken by the staff of the Nara National Research Institute of Cultural Properties, and was conducted in 1957 and 1958 after the completion of a similar study of the Asukadera Temple Site.
The first excavation was started in November, 1957 and continued for three and a half months, uncovering the southern half of the site. The digging revealed the sites of the West Main Hall, the area of the Pagoda, the Middle Gate and the adjoining South Corridor, the East and West Corridors, the South Gate, the Road before the South Gate, the North Gate of the neighbouring Tachibanadera Temple （橘寺） and the mud walls on both flanks of it. The digging also disclosed gutters running under the West Main Hall and the Middle Gate which apparently predate the erection of the temple.
The second digging was conducted for a month, beginning in April, 1958. The platform of the Pagoda was unearthed and a part of the platform and base-stones of the Central Main Hall were carefully studied.
The third excavation was carried out for four months from November of the same year in the northern half of the temple. As a result of this digging, the Lecture Hall north of the Central Main Hall, and the Monks' Dormitories that extend around three sides of the Lecture Hall, the North Corridor, the West Callery which extends from the junction of the West Monks' Dormitory and North Corridor, and an independent building far to the north of the central part of the temple were exposed.
The date of establishment of Kaaradera has been a controversial problem among historians interested in architecture. Several different dates, mostly ranging from 584 to 674 A.D., have been suggested by different scholars, but none has been proved beyond dispute. In a document of the early Heian Period, however, there is a statement that Kaaradera was established at the palace site where Empress Saimei resided in 655 and 656 A.D. The present research brought to light convincing proof of the trustworthiness of this statement. The stone structure supposedly used as a cascade, and two gutters connected thereto, which were found beneath the West Main Hall and north of the Middle Gate, antedate the erection of the temple. Also the remains recovered from the soil under these gutters date from the begining of the 7th century. These findings furnish eloquent testimony that the site was, in all probability, first occupied by the palace mentioned above, which was afterwards converted into a temple. There is no documentary evidence to show how long this palace existed, but according to histories of the period, a temporary palace for the funeral rite of Empress Saimei was built at Kaara in 661 A.D. Therefore the establishment of the temple cannot antedate this year. But the temple must have been erected very shortly after, because mention is made in a reliable chronicle of the period that Buddhist scriptures were copied in the temple in 674 A.D., showing the building had been completed by that date. The temple enjoyed considerable prosperity in the 8th century as one of the Grand Official Temples, and possessed a very large estate. From the 9th century on. the temple became affiliated with the Shingon Sect and was under the control of the Kyoo Gokokuji （教王護国寺）, commonly called Toji Temple （東寺） in Kyoto. But its magnificent edifices were reduced to ashes by a fire in 1191, and only the Pagoda, the Central Main Hall and a few other buildings were restored in the middle of the 13th century. But they were fated to be destroyed by another fire at the end of the 16th century and no attempt at restoration on a large scale has been made since then.
The center line of the original temple, like that of Asukadera, is orientated to the true north. At the southern end of this center line stood the South Gate. Then came the Middle Gate, 28.9m. north of the South Gate. (The distance between buildings is measured from center to center, the same rule applies to those that follow). At a point 23.8m. north of the Middle Gate, the Pagoda and the West Main Hall stood face to face, each 20m. away from the center line. The former stood on a platform 11.7m. square and the latter on a platform 21.8×14.8m. 50.3m. north of the Middle Gate, the pillars of the Central Main Hall were erected on the white marble base-stones neatly arranged on a platform 24.0×19.2m. The Corridors that started from both flanks of the Middle Gate enclosed the Pagoda and the West Main Hall and terminated at both flanks of the Central Main Hall. 48.1m. north of the Central Main Hall, there was a Lecture Hall, the platform of which measures 40.6×15.7m., and the Monks’ Dormiteries were arranged on the east, west and north side of the Lecture Hall. The southern end of both the East and West Dormitories were connected to the North Corridor. At the southern end of the West Dormitory, the Gallery, 7.1m wide, extended westward from the North Corridor. This seems to indicate that there was a group of comparatively important buildings at the end of the Gallery, and one of them is supposed to have been the Dining Hall. At 76.7m. north of the Lecture Hall, the site of a building was unearthed, 23.7m. west of the center line, whose use is unknown. It is very likely that a storehouse or other buildings of less importance were located as far north as this area. From the South Gate, the cobbled road extends up to the old road that runs outside of Tachibanadera. On the south side of this road stood the North Gate of Tachibanadera with mud walls extending on both flanks. It is very remarkable that this North Gate of Tachibanadera was not built according to the plan of Tachibanadera proper, but according to the plan of Kaaradera. From this fact it may be inferred that a new gate was built at this point in the Tachibanadera precinct, as the neighbouring temple began to take shape.
The layout of Kaaradera revealed an unprecedented example of placing a pagoda facing a west main hall in an enclosure of corridors before a central main hall. This unique layout of having several sacred edifices in a corridor enclosure, like the parallel example of Asukadera previously reported, once again dealt a telling blow to the long-established view of Japanese architectural historians that an ancient temple had a pagoda and only one main hall. A similar type of layout having a pagoda placed face to face with a main hall has been reported from Sufukuji, Shiga Prefecture, and Kanzeonji, Fukuoka Prefecture. That these two temples were erected by Emperor Tenchi (662-667 A.D.), who was the promotor of Kaaradera, is a fact deserving special attention.
It may be far too hasty to attribute the origin of this temple layout to T’ang culture. But the changes which took place in arts and crafts make the conclusion irresistible that after the momentous political innovation in 645 A.D. ‐ the Taika Reform ‐ the influence of early T'ang culture became very profound. The base-stones of Kaaradera are elaborately executed, whereas those of the earlier Asukadera are roughly cut blocks of stone. The lotus flower pattern on the round eave tiles of Kaaradera has the elegant double-petal form whereas the same pattern of earlier temples has the plain single-petal form. The architects of Kaaradera used a measure whose ten shaku （尺） were equal to 9.9 of the present shaku (or 3m.), which corresponds approximately to T'ang unit of measure. The earlier Asuka architects used a quite different measure, the so-colled Tung-wei （東魏） measure. This change of measure is also believed to lie due to the change of foreign influence.
In the documents of the temple, written during the 8th to the 12th centuries, there are records of the estate which it owned in the neighbourhood, designated by the ancient jori System （条里制）.* The results of a comparison between these old records and the map prepared by the recent aerial survey are striking. The fields and lanes of the old records coincide precisely with the present topographical conditions and it is gratifying to learn that the area in which the temple is recorded as having been located, “East 30th jo, 3rd ri of Yamato Province” （大和国東卅条三里） is now vividly brought to life. Especially interesting is the document dated 1116 A.D., in which the south-western corner of the estate is denoted “Kame Ishi 6th Tsubo” （亀石六坪）, and today in the very same place, a large rock, roughly hewn, called by the villagers “Kame Ishi”, still exists. Nobody knows when and for what purpose this rock was hewn, but it becomes now evident that it was used to mark the boundary of the temple estate in the Medieval period.
* The jori-sei （条里制） is a land partition system, carried out by the Central Government throughout the whole country at the time of the Taika Reform for the nationalization of land. All land was marked off, like a chess-board, into equal sections of 6 “cho” （町 or c. 655m.） square each. The lateral row of these squares was called jo, while the longitudinal row was called ri. Every jo and ri was consecutively numbered, and each square was designated by the combination of serial numbers of the jo and ri, e.g. ”1st jo 1st ri”, “5th jo 3rd ri” etc.
昭和三十五年三月三十一日 発行
奈良国立文化財研究所学報第九冊
川原寺発掘調査報告
