Kohfuku-ji

This guide to Kohfuku-ji in Nara asks why monks known for chanting sutras once beheaded sixty soldiers and displayed their heads at the edge of Sarusawa Pond, in the winter of 1180. It traces the temple back to its founding by the Fujiwara clan in 669, its growth into a private empire of over a hundred fifty buildings guarded by its own warrior monks, and the failed negotiation with the ruling Taira clan that set the killing in motion. It follows the retaliation that burned both Kohfuku-ji and neighboring Todai-ji, and the reckoning years later for the commander who lit the fire.