Shin-Yakushi-ji Temple

Overview

Shin-Yakushi-ji (新薬師寺, しんやくしじ) is a Buddhist temple in the Takabatakechō district of Nara, in Nara Prefecture, Japan. It belongs to the Kegon sect and was founded in 747, during the Nara period (710–794), in the nineteenth year of the Tenpyō era (天平). The temple stands at coordinates 34.67588, 135.84617, on rising ground east of central Nara.

The name means "New Yakushi Temple", and the temple is dedicated to Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of healing. Shin-Yakushi-ji is one of the 49 Sacred Sites of Saigoku Yakushi, a pilgrimage circuit of temples devoted to Yakushi. It also belongs to the Yamato Northern 88 Sacred Sites and the Thirteen Buddhist Sites of Yamato.

History

Empress Kōmyō founded the temple in 747. It was originally laid out as a full Shichidō garan (七堂伽藍), the standard seven-building complex of a major Japanese temple, with a pagoda, main hall, lecture hall, bell tower, sutra repository, monks' quarters and refectory arranged around a courtyard.

That complete complex did not survive. The temple suffered fire damage and declined through the Heian period (794–1185). It was revived in the Kamakura period (1185–1333), when the site was rebuilt on a smaller scale.

Of the eighth-century buildings, only the main hall remains. Every other structure standing at Shin-Yakushi-ji today dates from the Kamakura period.

What Stands There Today

The Hon-dō (本堂), the main hall, is the single surviving building from the eighth century. It is a National Treasure, designated as such by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of the Japanese government.

Inside the Hon-dō sits the temple's principal image, a seated Yakushi Nyorai, also designated a National Treasure. Surrounding it are eleven statues of the Twelve Heavenly Generals (十二神将, jūni shinshō), guardians of the Yakushi cult, likewise designated National Treasures. The hall's interior is unusual: rather than a central altar, the eleven generals are arranged in a circle around the seated Yakushi, so that visitors walk around the group.

The Hon-dō is a plain, unpainted wooden building with a hipped-and-gabled roof, and it is the reason most visitors come. The Kamakura-period structures that accompany it make up the rest of the present compound.

The Name in Japanese

The temple's name is written 新薬師寺 and read しんやくしじ (shin'yakushiji). It breaks into four kanji.

新 — read shin here. It means "new". On its own the character can also be read atarashii (新しい), "new", or ara-, as in 新た (arata).

薬 — read yaku here. It means "medicine" or "drug". The standalone Japanese word for medicine is 薬 (kusuri), which uses this same character; the yaku reading appears in compounds.

師 — read shi here. It means "master", "teacher" or "expert" — a person of authority in a craft or discipline. In this word it names the Buddha as the master of medicine.

寺 — read ji here. It means "Buddhist temple". This is the standard suffix on temple names across Japan, and it appears in Nara's other great foundations, such as Tōdai-ji and Kōfuku-ji. The same character is read tera when it stands alone as a word.

Put together, 薬師 (yakushi) is the Japanese name of Bhaiṣajyaguru, the Buddha of healing, whose name means "master of medicine" — hence the characters "medicine" plus "master". 寺 marks the building. 新, "new", distinguishes this temple from an older Yakushi foundation, so the whole name means "New Medicine-Master Temple". The apostrophe in shin'yakushiji separates the syllable n from the following y, showing that 新 is read shin and not merged into the next character.

Visiting and Context

Shin-Yakushi-ji sits in the Takabatakechō area of Nara, south-east of Nara Park and away from the crowds that fill Tōdai-ji and Kasuga Taisha. The walk from the centre of Nara passes through quiet residential streets and up a gentle slope.

The temple's setting within the old capital matters for understanding it. Nara was Japan's capital during the Nara period, and the city's great temples — Tōdai-ji, Kōfuku-ji, Gangō-ji, Yakushi-ji — were state or clan foundations on a monumental scale. Shin-Yakushi-ji was founded in 747, the same decade in which Tōdai-ji's Great Buddha was being cast, and its original seven-building layout reflects that same ambition. What survives is a fraction of it.

For students of Japanese, the temple rewards attention to vocabulary. 薬師 (yakushi) appears in the names of temples across the country and in the phrase 薬師如来 (yakushi nyorai), the healing Buddha. 寺 (ji/tera) is one of the most productive elements in Japanese place names. 新 (shin) turns up constantly in compounds meaning "new" — 新聞 (shinbun, newspaper), 新年 (shinnen, New Year). Reading the name 新薬師寺 character by character, then noticing the same characters elsewhere, is a compact lesson in how Japanese builds meaning out of kanji compounds.