Tokon-do

This guide to Tokon-do in Nara follows a hall that has burned down five times, most recently in 1411, and risen again just four years later, always paid for by the Fujiwara clan, the family that ran Kofuku-ji as a private income stream and, for a time, ran Nara itself. You'll hear how that wealth funded more than one hundred fifty buildings, and how a rival army under the commander Shigehira torched much of the complex during the Genpei War. Look closely at the roofline and the open porch as you stand here, features the 1415 carpenters chose with unusual care.