ABSTRACT
Nara was not founded until 710, but the surrounding area began to develop as a cultural and religious center a century. earlier. Between A.D. 601 and 607, Empress Suiko's nephew and regent, Prince Shōtoku-Taishi, founded a monastic com plex, Hōryū-ji, in the village of Ikaruga, on the western edge of the Nara plain. It remains standing today, one of the best surviving examples of T'ang period architecture, and its western temple's five-story pagoda is one of the oldest wooden buildings extant in the world. Built largely on Chi nese principles, "Hōryū-ji" means "Temple of the Prosperity of the Buddhist Law." It was inaugurated in 616. To commem orate the death of Shōtoku in 621, the court ladies embroi dered the Land of Heavenly Longevity (Tenjukoku), a piece modeled after Chinese examples, in which Shōtoku is shown enjoying paradise after death. The embroidery depicts tor toises, which symbolize longevity, as well as lotuses and bodhisatrvas, enlightened beings who remain voluntarily on earth in order to save others. The oldest known piece of Japanese embroidery, a fragment of it is preserved at the nunnery of Chūgūji, located at the eastern end of Hōryū-ji.
