Todai-ji Daibutsuden (Great Buddha Hall)

This guide to the Great Buddha Hall at Todai-ji in Nara starts with a simple count of the seven bays across its front, against the eleven bays of Emperor Shomu's original hall from the 700s, and asks how a building could lose four whole bays and still stand as it does. It follows the project that nearly bankrupted a nation to cast the bronze Buddha inside, and the two fires, in 1180 and 1567, that tore through the hall built to house it. Listen for the pillar with a hole cut through its base, said to match the size of the Buddha's own nostril.