{Inter} Cultural Japan

Asuka, in the southern part of the Nara basin, is the cradle of Japanese civilization. In Asuka the first Japanese capital was founded and here Japan was transformed from a loose alliance of clan lords to a state with a clear national consciousness.

Asuka contained magnificent palaces and courtly residences, as well as Japan’s first-ever Buddhist temples and cloisters. Its green pastures were the playground of brocaded courtiers and gaudily decked-out palace ladies.

[Green fields of Asuka]

There are no remnants left of that glory today. There are not even any ruins: all palaces and terraces, temples and shrines have been devoured by time, lock, stock and barrel.

The past is buried deep under the green grass, the undulating hills, and the tiny rice fields; not to mention the ugly commuter’s houses, proof that Asuka is just a bit too close to Osaka. The play of courtiers is only a wispy dream, haunting the verdant fields.

But the Asuka area, crisscrossed by paths for walking or cycling, is beautiful. It is dotted with imperial tombs, often surrounded by impressive moats and with a Shinto gate in front. There is also the Takamatsu-zuka Tumulus with its ancient wall frescos, or the Ishibutai (’Stone Terrace’), a heap of huge stone menhirs, presumably the remainder of another grave.

All over Asuka I also find quaint stone figures: a strange little dwarf, a frog, and other stone shapes of which the meaning has been forgotten. Perhaps they were ornaments of the long-gone gardens of the nobility. Then there is azalea-clad Amakashi Hill, that affords a splendid view over the area and therefore was popular for poetry gatherings in the time when the people who now inhabit the graves roamed the earth. And to the north of this hill stands the Asuka Temple, the destiny of today’s pilgrimage.

[Gate to Asukadera]

A Rural Temple
The Asuka Temple (Angoin), reminds me of a half-forgotten, rural temple. The small sanctuary is only an elementary structure to provide a roof for a large Buddha statue sitting inside. All former glory lies buried under the fields. There are no external signs to remind one that the Asuka Temple originally was one of the most splendid temples ever built.

Asukadera was in fact Japan’s first real temple. On this very spot, in the fields of Asuka, about 25 kilometers south of present-day Nara, in the year 588 CE a type of tower that had never before been seen in Japan was rising up to the sky. It was the first Buddhist pagoda and it was being built by Korean artisans at the behest of the chief minister to the throne, Soga no Umako. Under the pagoda’s main pillar bone fragments of the Buddha and other holy relics were buried, donated by Chinese immigrants.

Buddhism was new and utterly exotic to the Japanese: the priests in their colorful robes, mumbling incantations in a foreign language; the golden images of strange gods and the many other mystic ritual implements; the architecture, with tiles instead of thatch on the roofs, the strange shape of a building like a pagoda.

More than a religion, it must at first have impressed the Japanese as a powerful magic that would protect the believers and enhance their fortune. It was new and modern too, as the techniques used to produce these artworks and architectures had been unknown to the Japanese.

The high-rising pagoda first and for all had a political meaning. The Soga clan (themselves perhaps immigrants from the continent) was in fierce competition with the Mononobe and other families who had traditionally been influential at court. The family had the luminous idea to use patronage of Buddhism to enhance their prestige, an idea that was suggested to them at the moment Buddhism first entered Japan.

[Hall of Asukadera]

A Buddhist Victory
That was in the middle of the sixth century, when the king of the Korean kingdom of Paekche sent a mission to the emperor of Japan bearing presents including an image of the Buddha and a number of sutras. The emperor, however, who was after all the high priest of the native religion, felt it would go too far to start worshiping the new creed.

But as he also did not dare neglect the wondrous new image (warmly recommended by the Korean king) he asked who among his courtiers would be willing to take it in their care. The Soga jumped at the occasion. In the next years, an intense strife with the Mononobe, the main conservative clan that opposed the new faith followed. There were ups and downs on both sides, but in 587, at the death of the emperor, the Mononobe were defeated in an open military clash. From then on the Soga had the field to themselves in Japanese politics, until hubris led to their own fall in 645.

The building of the pagoda - taking place just before the Soga’s victory - was a public challenge from Soga no Umako to his enemies. After his victory, in 588 Asukadera (or Hokoji, as it was then called) was established around the wondrous and exotic pagoda. The whole temple complex took twenty more years to build, and was huge in dimension.

This became clear when the site was excavated in 1957. The researchers were surprised at the size of the temple layout, consisting of the pagoda with a width of 12 meters at the base of the sides; the Middle Main Hall of the temple, housing its statues; and two more halls standing to the left and right; the whole was enclosed by a roofed corridor. The total site measured 20,000 m2 - thrice the size of Horyuji’s main compound.

Unfortunately, after the excavations, the site was closed again, so that now nothing is left to remind visitors of the original grandeur of this temple. The present building is small and of late date.

It is in fact not more than a simple hall to house the temple’s main image, the 2.75 meter high Asuka Buddha. This is Shaka, the historical Buddha, and like the (later) Shaka in Horyuji it was made by Tori, the first Buddhist sculptor in Japan, who was active in the late fifth and early sixth century. It has been cast in bronze and this statue, too, is in the style that was popular in China at the time, that of the Northern Wei.

[Ishibutai]

First and Last of the Soga
Asuka Temple became a symbol of the power of Soga no Umako, a position of influence that he later transferred to his son Emishi and grandson Iruka. When Umako died in 626 a huge menhir type grave, the Ishibutai or Stone Terrace, was built to house his remains. This mounded tomb is built in the same grand style as the temple. Made of large granite boulders (the two on top weighing 77 metric tons), it is now exposed through erosion, so that visitors can enter it. Of course, there is no vestige anymore of its original occupant.

In the days of Iruka, the grandson, the Soga had caused so much opposition with their high-handed tactics that a coup followed. The strong man of the reaction was Fujiwara no Kamatari, the first leader of a clan that would consecutively (but more subtly than the Soga) dominate Japanese politics. He acted in consort with Prince Naka no Oe, the later emperor Tenji.

Piquantly, they had their first secret meeting under a zelkova tree in the Asuka temple. Consequently, Iruka was murdered in the Itabuki palace just south of temple, an act carried out right before the eyes of the emperor. The coup members immediately occupied the Asuka temple, from where they were in a good position to fight the Soga forces that were assembled on the Amakashi hill behind it.

Thus the symbol of Soga power became the place of their defeat. Emishi killed himself by setting fire to his house. His whole clan was exterminated. A hundred meters west of the Asuka Temple is a small grave that is said to contain the severed head of Iruka.

[Iruka’s head grave]

A Battered Buddha
A great good may make use of historical forces that in themselves are not so ethical. Thanks to the Soga’s patronage, which undoubtedly was more for reasons of power politics and self-aggrandizement than religion, Buddhism could gain a foothold in Japan. There had been private believers before, among the numerous Korean and Chinese immigrants in the country, but thanks to the Soga clan, Buddhism - originally a very exotic creed to the Japanese - gained public acceptance. Over the course of the centuries it would deeply influence Japanese thought, culture and art.

I arrive at Asukadera after a day’s walk along historical remnants and I have come here to see another remnant: what is left of Japan’s oldest great Buddha statue. After I step up into the temple hall, a priest shows me the statue. Sitting on the wooden floor in front of the Shaka Buddha, I listen to his narration about the temple’s history. The statue is lighted by small spotlights that bring out its qualities to advantage.

The Shaka is indeed a sadly battered statue. It has been so often restored that it seems no more than a coagulation of cracked bronze, sometimes inexpertly welded together. Only part of the face and three of its fingers are still original. It seems as if the Buddha has been in a traffic accident and operated on by an inexpert plastic surgeon. The face is not in balance and depending on the position of the viewer, makes a very different impression.

From where I sit on the floor, it looks strangely compassionate and a bit sad, worlds removed from the power magnates who patronized its building, eons away from the history of its own decline.

It seems as if, over all those centuries, the compassion that is the core of Buddhism has been mixed with sadness at the world’s state and found expression in the mutilated face of this Shaka, the oldest Buddha of Japan.

Address: 682 Asuka, Asuka-mura, Takaichi-gun, Nara-ken
Tel. 0744-54-2126
Access: 10 min. by bus from Kashiwara-Jingu-mae Station on the Kintetsu Kashiwara Line.
In the neighborhood: Visit other Asuka destinations as the Ishibutai, Takamatsu Kofun, Asukani-imasu Jinja, Okadera, Tachibanadera, the Amakashi-no-Oka Hill and the Asuka Historical Museum. It is a great area to walk or cycle around for a whole day.
Resources: The website of the Asuka Historical Museum has excellent English introductions about the temples in Asuka, as well as palace ruins, kofun tumuli, and stone figures.