Toshodai-ji

Temple · Nara

Researched and translated with AI assistance. Every claim is linked to its source, but errors get through, so check the official site for opening times, fees and closures.About

In short

The head temple of the Ritsu school, opened in 759 by Ganjin, who came from Tang China, as a place of practice for people studying the precepts.

The main hall of Toshodai-ji in Nara. — Tsuyoshi chiba / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Quick facts

Address: 13-46 Gojocho, Nara

About this place

Toshodai-ji is in Nara and is the head temple of the Ritsu school. Ganjin spent five years at Todai-ji, was then granted the former residence of Prince Niitabe, and in 759 opened a place of practice for people studying the precepts. The main hall was completed by his disciple Nyoho.

Origin and history

Ganjin spent five years at Todai-ji, and was then granted the former residence of Prince Niitabe.

In 759 he opened a place of practice for people studying the precepts. This is Toshodai-ji.

The main hall was completed by his disciple Nyoho. The temple is the head temple of the Ritsu school.

What it is locally associated with

Origin
Opened in 759 for students of the precepts
Ganjin opened a place of practice for people studying the precepts in 759.
documented history
Origin
Prince Niitabe’s former residence
Ganjin spent five years at Todai-ji and was then granted the former residence of Prince Niitabe.
documented history
What people do here
A main hall finished by a disciple
The main hall was completed by his disciple Nyoho. The temple is the head temple of the Ritsu school.
documented history

This temple began as a place to study. It was opened as a hall of practice for people studying the precepts — that is the beginning it transmits, and it describes a facility for those in training rather than for visitors. No benefit is named anywhere, and this page therefore carries no tag for what may be prayed for.

The man who opened it was Ganjin, who had crossed from Tang China. One other place on this list connects to him: Kurama-dera in Kyoto was founded in 770 by Kanchō, and Kurama-dera’s own account calls him a senior disciple of Ganjin of Toshodai-ji in Nara. The master’s temple and the disciple’s temple both survive, one in Nara and one in Kyoto.

The site was handed down too. After his five years at Todai-ji, Ganjin was granted the former residence of Prince Niitabe — a royal house turned into a place of training.

The main hall was finished not by Ganjin but by his disciple Nyoho.

Claims and evidence levels 2

Ganjin opened Toshodai-ji in 759 as a place of practice for people studying the precepts, on the former residence of Prince Niitabe granted to him after five years at Todai-ji. documented history
The main hall was completed by his disciple Nyoho, and the temple is the head temple of the Ritsu school. documented history

Related guides

How to visit a shrine or temple in JapanThe country-wide basics: purifying at the water basin, the two-bows-two-claps-one-bow form at shrines, and what temples do instead.
What a "power spot" actually isA modern Japanese coinage, not a traditional religious category. Where the word came from, what it does and does not claim, and why this site uses it anyway.
Shrine or temple?A shrine is Shinto and a temple is Buddhist, and you can usually tell at the gate. Why the line is cleaner on paper than on the ground, and what a government order in 1868 has to do with it.
Omamori, ema, omikuji and goshuinThe four things you are most likely to receive, write, draw or be given at a shrine or temple, what each is actually for, and the one of them people most often get wrong.