Hokiji Temple Three-Storied Pagoda
Pagodas at Buddhist temples in Japan were originally conceived as reliquaries and monuments dedicated to Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha. Hokiji Temple’s majestic Three-Story Pagoda, standing some 24 meters tall, is a rare example of architecture from Japan’s Asuka period (593–710), and the oldest three-storied pagoda in Japan. It is the only building surviving from the original establishment of Hokiji Temple in 706.
Scholars believe that the pagoda was modeled on the Five-Story Pagoda at Horyuji Temple, to which the Hokiji Temple belongs. The Buddhist priest Shinsei Ennin and his disciples restored the pagoda in 1678, and it was most recently dismantled and restored in 1975.