Asuka-dera

This guide to Asuka-dera in Nara follows the casting of a seated bronze Buddha in 609, poured by Kuratsukuri no Tori, grandson of an immigrant saddle-maker who crossed from the Asian mainland in 522. Soga no Umako, the noble who commissioned the temple, gave Tori a technique nobody in Japan had attempted before; it took about four years to finish a statue nearly three meters tall, plated in gold. You'll hear how Empress Suiko rewarded him on the spot, and how fire and lightning later tore down the temple that once surrounded the statue. Look closely at the face and raised hand in front of you as you listen.