Here in Nara, there is a wooden building that has burned down twice: the Great Buddha Hall of Todai-ji Temple.

Yet, it remains one of the world's largest wooden structures, standing approximately 49 meters tall, about the height of a 16-story building.

How did this wooden building rise again each time it burned down?

After the fire of 1180, the 61-year-old monk, Chogen, carried 30-meter-long giant trees from the mountains of Suo in the far west. Instead of using nails, he rebuilt the Great Buddha Hall in just 14 years, employing "nuki" (threads that pierce the pillars themselves) and "sashihijiki" (brackets inserted into the pillars).

The answer was tested during the second fire in 1567. We will trace its history from the bottom up, through to the "bundled pillars" of the Edo period (when giant trees were no longer available) and the steel framework of the Meiji era.

▼Table of Contents
0:00 Todai-ji Great Buddha Hall | A wooden building that burned down twice and was rebuilt three times
2:17 Giant trees of Suo | 30m pillars transported to Nara via 118 weirs
4:44 Nuki | Chogen, who abandoned nails and pierced the pillars
7:03 Sashihijiki | Six-tiered brackets inserted into pillars to support the eaves
9:09 The fire of 1567 and the Edo reconstruction | Bundled pillars and Meiji-era steel frames
11:29 The current Great Buddha Hall and South Gate | Chogen's gate that stands for 800 years

▼Main Sources
・"Todai-ji Construction Commemoration Record" (Included in Dai Nippon Bukkyo Zensho Vol. 121, Todai-ji Sosho 1)
・Keisuke Fujii * A study on the reconstruction of the Kamakura-era Great Buddha Hall based on the Todai-ji Great Buddha Hall drawing preserved at Daigo-ji Temple (Architectural History, No. 12, 1989)
Kozo Ike, Itsuki Suzuki, Haruo Kataoka, "Components of the Todai-ji South Gate: Brackets and Nuki in the Structural Section," Journal of Architecture and Planning, Architectural Institute of Japan, No. 453 (1993)
Kozo Ike, "The Todai-ji Great Buddha Hall Reconstructed in the Kamakura Period - A Restorative Study of its Structure and Component Members," Journal of Architecture and Planning, Architectural Institute of Japan, No. 476 (1995)
Takahisa Sato, "On the Standardization of Component Dimensions in the Todai-ji South Gate," Journal of Architecture and Planning, Architectural Institute of Japan, No. 593 (2005)
Mikiyasu Yamazaki, "On the Changes in Design Proposals during the Meiji Restoration of the Todai-ji Great Buddha Hall," Journal of Architecture and Planning, Architectural Institute of Japan, No. 535 (2000)
Todai-ji Official Website "Great Buddha Hall"
Photo: Wikimedia Commons (Todai-ji Great Buddha Hall, South Gate, Sabagawa Sekisui) / National Diet Library Digital Collection

The video and audio in this video are reproductions created using AI based on actual photographs and historical materials. It is not live-action documentary footage.

#Todai-ji #GreatBuddhaOfNara #GreatBuddhaHall #Chogen #Nara #JapaneseHistory

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