Dojima Yakushido Temple 堂島薬師堂

Published on : 31/08/2018
by : S.V.

The temple of mirror

In the Kita district of Osaka, discover the astonishing Dojima Yakushido with its super-contemporary design, a temple founded 1,400 years ago!

A millennial history

At first glance, Dojima Yakushido might remind you more of a giant disco ball or spacecraft floating on the water than a 1,400-year-old temple. And yet... it was around 593 that this Buddhist temple, dedicated to Yakushi Buddha (Healing Buddha), was founded in the small district of Dojima.

See also: Yaskushi-ji temple in Nara

A guide to famous places in Osaka dating from 1645 locates the sinking of a boat loaded with wood intended for the construction of the Shitennoji temple, during a strong storm, at the origin of the creation of the Dojima Yakushido. Indeed, the latter would have been built at the exact place where the ship disappeared. It's hard to imagine that the Dojima River and the Sonezakiens River hugged the area several centuries ago. The room was then only a bank of sandy earth caught in a vice between the two rivers.

Along the water

But where is the Sonezaki River hiding today? Please don't waste time looking for it: all that remains of it are souvenir steles! In 1685, the Sonezaki River was filled in at the rice trader Ryu Kawamura's request to increase the cultivable land area. This decision allowed the creation of the Dojima district as such and then its development during the Edo period (1603-1868). In 1697, the establishment of the Rice Exchange finished changing the community and attracted a large crowd to the Dojima Yakushido.

At the end of the Meiji era (1868-1912), the authorities moved the temple to allow the construction of the Dojima-za theater. But this relocation, although in the immediate vicinity, would have led to disastrous consequences. The people involved in this decision die one after the other, all stricken by an unknown evil. The legend of the "bane of the healing Buddha" was born.

Set of mirrors

The Dojima Yakushido will not return to its original location until 1999, after the disappearance of the theater and then the headquarters of the daily Mainichi Shinbun, which had succeeded it. The temple thus regains its ancestral place, to the delight of Yakushi Buddha... and the relief of the most superstitious!

The new temple is now integrated into the garden of the massive Dojima Avanza office complex. In the center of a green setting, this 100-meter-high tower notably houses one of the largest bookstores in Kansai (from the Junkudo chain).

devant-dojima_yakushido — The Dōjima Yakushido, a mirror temple
Kenpei

The temple has had a facelift to adapt to this modern architectural setting. And it's not much to say! Placed in the center of a basin, the spherical temple with a diameter of 7 meters has a super-contemporary design. The reflections produced by the 127 golden mirrors that cover it have a spiritual significance illustrating the celestial body and the infinite spirit of Yakushi Buddha. In front of the temple, substantial, stylized candelabras unite in the traditional motif of gassho (hands joined in prayer).

Every February 3, the place hosts the Dojima Yakushido Stesubun Omizukumi, a unique festival resulting from the fusion of the Setsubun festivities and the omizukumi matsuri (water harvesting festival). To believe that this strange temple only calls for originality!