Burning of Nara
南都焼討
Event · fire · January 1181 (Jishō 4, 12th month) · Nara, Japan
At the beginning of the Genpei War the Taira army burnt the Great Buddha Hall of Tōdaiji, as a punishment for the temple’s support of the Minamoto, and razed Kōfukuji in the same raid1. Tōdaiji records that Taira no Shigehira’s troops burnt most of its buildings in Jishō 4 — the 28th day of its 12th month, January 1181 in the Western calendar, which the sources write as 1180 — and that rebuilding began the next year under the monk Chōgen: the Buddha consecrated again in 1185, the hall in 11952. Kōfukuji’s Hokuendō, burnt then too, was rebuilt in 1207–12103. The rebuilding of both temples was the work of the Kei school — Unkei, Kaikei and their workshop — down to the Niō of Tōdaiji’s Great South Gate4. Mason 2005, pp. 184–189. ↩ Tōdaiji, 東大寺の歴史, 「治承4年（1180）に平重衡の軍勢により大仏殿をはじめ伽藍の大半が焼かれた。しかし翌年には俊乗房重源によって復興が着手され」. ↩ 文化遺産オンライン, 興福寺北円堂, 「永承四年（一〇四九）と治承四年（一一八〇）に焼失し、現在の堂は承元元年（一二〇七）に着工し」. ↩ Mason 2005, pp. 186–189. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005. Tōdaiji, 東大寺の歴史: 東大寺の歴史, https://www.todaiji.or.jp/information/history/ (zuletzt abgerufen am 31.10.2026). 文化遺産オンライン, 興福寺北円堂: 興福寺北円堂, in: Cultural Heritage Online (文化遺産オンライン), https://online.bunka.go.jp/db/heritages/detail/186606 (zuletzt abgerufen am 31.10.2026).