Saidai-ji

This guide to Saidai-ji in Nara traces the temple from its founding in 765, when Empress Shotoku ordered it built after surviving a rebellion by her own chancellor, through centuries of fire and typhoon that left it in ruins. It follows the monk Eison, who arrived in 1238 determined to save it, fed the sick and cared for outcasts the city refused to touch, and one day carried tea out to the crowd waiting at the gate after first offering it to the temple's guardian deity. Look for the Hachiman shrine inside the grounds where that first cup was poured.