Tōtōmi Kokubun-ji

Tōtōmi Kokubun-ji - Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The was a Buddhist temple located in the Mitsuke neighborhood of what is now the city of Iwata, Shizuoka, Japan. It was one of the provincial temples established by Emperor Shōmu during the Nara period (710 – 794) for the purpose of promoting Buddhism as the national religion of Japan and standardising control of the Yamato rule over the provinces. The original temple no longer exists, but the temple grounds are an archaeological site which was designated as a Special National Historic Site in 1962. The area under protection was expanded in 2012. Read more on Wikipedia

type: religious building
date from: Nara period

Source: en.wikipedia.org