Temple Tales

Temple Tales

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Temple Tales
Temple Tales
Ep. 151: Old Yamato - Asuka

Ep. 151: Old Yamato - Asuka

More temples--and weird stones--in another one of Japan's ancient capitals

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James Baquet
Jun 21, 2025
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Temple Tales
Temple Tales
Ep. 151: Old Yamato - Asuka
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In this episode, we'll continue the tour of Old Yamato--the Ancient Heart of Japan--that we started in Episode 150. Please refer back to that episode for how I got to today's starting point.

In a sense, this is just an update and expansion of the journal I kept when I visited Asuka on October 11, 2001, with more and better information than was available then (and less of the not-so-perennial stuff, like how I got lost had an adventure coming out of a museum).

Three of the sites we'll talk about today have been visited in previous newsletters (including two separate sections of one):

  • Asuka-dera: Said to be Japan's oldest temple; while that is disputed, it almost certainly is home to Japan's oldest statue of the Buddha. (Episode 067)

  • Ishibutai: What was once a turf-covered burial place and is now an impressive pile of stones (Episode 026); and

  • The Monkey Stones: Some of Asuka's many "mysterious stones" (also Episode 026)

And now, let's go!

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