Post by washi on Apr 16, 2015 4:41:46 GMT
Hōryūji, a Buddhist temple in Ikaruga, Nara Prefecture, Japan, has been blessed with several placemarks already. All of them (except for mine, which focused on the temple's first 53 years as Wakakusa Garan) are part of longer posts, each stressing a particular theme, but none of them explore this very important temple as completely as I feel it deserves. My interest in creating this post began with my wish to preserve the availability of the hand-made models which are now accessible from the 3D Buildings Layer. They are, for me at least, an important adjunct for seeing details not readily observed from photos or even from actual visits, and for appreciating their sculptural qualities. Being located in a rural area, I expect the detailed models of these important structures will be among the last to be replaced by machine-generated replacements. Perhaps, by the time that happens, the new models will be able to convey the aesthetic values of these ancient buildings. If so, I will be pleasantly surprised, and no harm will be done by my efforts to cling to the old technology.
Hōryūji was founded by Prince Shōtoku, son of the Emperor Yōmei and nephew of the Empress Suiko, for whom he served as Regent. He is regarded as the father of Japanese Buddhism. As an innovative ruler, he shaped Japanese government for generations to follow. For many centuries he has been venerated as a Buddhist saint, and his presence pervades the whole of the vast Hōryūji complex.
"The Temple of the Flourishing Buddhist Law," as the temple's name is often translated into English, is one of the oldest and most important Buddhist temples in Japan. Because many of its buildings date from the earliest days of Japanese Buddhism, it is one of the most important sources for understanding early-period temple architecture. Over the 15 centuries of its existence, it amassed a vast treasure of religious art. Hōryūji has 45 buildings and objects given the special protected status of "National Treasure," with 140 more classed as "Important Cultural Properties". These numbers far exceed any other temple. There are somewhat more than 2000 structures and art object that are afforded protection to a lesser degree. Along with Hokkiji, a temple located about 1.25 km (.8 m) to the northeast, and founded by Shōtoku's son as a provision of his father's will, Hōryūji was Japan's first UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In the recorded tours (there are two, one with sound and one without), the balloons that open are little more than labels for the buildings being explored. I supplemented this in Part One by faintly outlining all of the buildings visited in the tours, and many which were not. By clicking on these KML shapes, balloons will open with information and pictures of the buildings and the National Treasures that they contain. (Photography is not permitted in any of the buildings, so I have used out-of-copyright photos, mostly black and white, which I have not hesitated to enhance in an effort to make them easier to see. The source of these photos is not credited, but they all were downloaded from Wikipedia Commons.)
Part Three of this file is about Wakakusa Garan, as the first buildings at Hōryūji are called. I had recently read a report about an archeological study conducted in 2005 that confirmed the 670 fire that destroyed the original temple. This fire had been a matter of controversy for over a century, and the report is a fascinating read. But my principal purpose in creating the 2009 post was finding a way to download the contents of the file (a map showing the size and location of the old temple structures drawn with KML shapes) from a placemark in the Google Earth Community Layer, in what was then a new software platform. That old post has been incorporated into this one, with few changes, except to match the shapes to the default imagery, chosen because it was the imagery used to create the 3D models. That old placemark has been removed from the post, but will remain in the Layer until my older files are able to be scraped.
File last revised March 10, 2023.
