Yakushi-ji (薬師寺) is one of the most famous imperial and ancient Buddhist temples in Japan.
The original Yakushi-ji was built in Fujiwara-kyō, Japan's capital in the Asuka period. It was commissioned by Emperor Tenmu in 680 to pray for recovery from illness for his consort, who succeeded him as Empress Jitō. This act of building temples in devotion to Buddhist figures was a common practice among Japanese nobility when Buddhism was first imported from China and Korea. Emperor Tenmu had died by the time Empress Jitō completed the complex around 698; and it was disassembled and moved to Nara eight years after the Imperial Court settled in what was then the new capital.
It has been long believed that the temple was moved to its present location in 718, following the move of the capital to Heijō-kyō known today as Nara. However, excavations of the Fujiwara-kyō Yakushi-ji site in the 1990s suggest that there may have been two Yakushi-ji at one time. The Fujiwara-kyō Yakushi-ji is also referred to as Moto Yakushi-ji (元 moto, original).
The East Pagoda (東塔, Tō-tō), completed in 730 during the Nara period, is the only original 8th-century structure at Yakushi-ji. The structure stands at 34 metres (112 ft), and is regarded as one of the finest pagodas in Japan, representing Hakuhō to Tenpyō period architecture. The East Pagoda has just three stories, but seems to have six because of the presence of inter-storey pent roofs (mokoshi).
