Shitennoji Temple

Shitennoji is said to be the oldest officially founded Buddhist temple in Japan. Prince Shotoku, the regent who championed Buddhism in the early Japanese state, built it in 593 to honor the Four Heavenly Kings, the guardian deities after whom it is named, in thanks for victory in a battle over the new faith. The temple has been destroyed many times over fourteen centuries, by fire, typhoon and war, and the main buildings you see were faithfully rebuilt in concrete in 1963, but they reproduce the original plan exactly, and that plan is the point: the Shitennoji layout, with the middle gate, five-story pagoda, main hall and lecture hall lined up one behind another on a straight axis inside a covered cloister, is the oldest surviving style of temple arrangement in Japan, older than the more famous complexes of Nara. Inside the central precinct you can climb the pagoda's interior stairs and see the golden hall's image of Kannon, and the surrounding grounds are full of halls and quiet corners: the Taishi-den, dedicated to Prince Shotoku himself; the Kamei-Fudodo, where a spring flows from a stone turtle and worshippers float paper offerings for ancestors; a turtle pond; the stone torii at the western gate, unusual for a Buddhist temple; and the Gokuraku Jodo garden, a stroll garden designed to evoke Amida Buddha's Western Paradise. The outer grounds are free and open early, and modest admission fees apply to the central precinct, the garden and the treasure house.

Shitennoji feels very different from Kyoto's temples: it is a working, neighborhood temple, used daily by local people, with pigeons on the paths, incense smoke drifting across the courtyards and very few tour groups. Its spiritual center for many Osakans is the Kamei-Fudodo, the turtle-well hall, where people write names on thin wooden slats and float them in the spring water for the repose of the dead. The best time to visit is on the 21st or 22nd of the month, when the temple hosts one of the biggest flea markets in the Kansai region, with hundreds of stalls selling antiques, old kimonos, ceramics, tools and bric-a-brac across the grounds; the 21st is the monthly memorial day of Kobo Daishi and the 22nd that of Prince Shotoku. Go in the morning for the best finds.

The temple is also the stage for one of Osaka's great annual ceremonies. On 22 April, the Shoryoe Bugaku, a performance of ancient court dance and music held in honor of Prince Shotoku, is staged on a platform over the turtle pond, and it is designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property. At the spring and autumn equinoxes, crowds gather at the western gate, which looks toward the setting sun and was long believed to face the gate of the Western Paradise, to watch the sun set directly in line with it.

Shitennoji is about five minutes' walk from Shitennoji-mae Yuhigaoka Station on the Tanimachi subway line, and about fifteen minutes on foot from Tennoji Station and Abeno Harukas. Plan an hour or so, or longer on market days, and pair it with the rest of Tennoji: the Harukas observatory, Tennoji Park and the retro streets of Shinsekai. For a temple walk, the Tennoji Seven Slopes, a string of hilly lanes lined with small temples to the north and west, make a peaceful stroll toward the old Uemachi plateau.