"Such an awesome tour! Mouloud, our guide, was very knowledgeable on the sites we went to and the history of Japan. We had a really fun time exploring these amazing structures. The temple of Asuka Dera was a must see as well! I can’t wait to go on another tour with Mouloud! Response from Provider June 12, 2025 Thank you for booking our tour and for you awesome review! We are glad you liked you e"
Asuka · Founded 596 · The First Temple
Asuka-dera: The First Temple, Still Open
No golden pavilions, no crowds - a small country hall holding the oldest dated great bronze Buddha in Japan, in the village where Japanese Buddhism drew its first breath.
From
$219
per person
Free cancellation
- 6 Tour Types All Experience Levels
- Skip the Line Entry Included
- Free Cancellation
How a Temple Visit Works
Four steps, humility included.
Adjust Expectations Downward, Rightly
Today's Asuka-dera is a modest country temple on the footprint of a vanished giant - the point is the age, not the architecture.
Pay the Small Entry
A few hundred yen brings you into the hall and face to face with the Great Buddha - photography is generally tolerated, gentleness always.
Sit a Minute
The priests' short telling of the statue's survivals - fires, collapses, centuries - is the valley's best free story when offered.
Walk the Footprint
Markers around the hall trace the original three-golden-hall complex - pace it out and the 'first temple' claim takes its true size.
Photo Gallery
The Temple on Camera
The hall, the bell, the Buddha's fourteen-century gaze.
Book Your Experience
Check Availability & Prices
Select your date and group size. Instant confirmation — free cancellation up to 24 hours before.
Ways to Meet the First Buddha
Drop in by bike, or give the Soga story a guide.
| Feature | Independent visit (a few hundred yen) | THE CONNECTED TELLING Private ancient-capital day ($219) | Origin-of-Japan walk ($125) |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | The hall, the Buddha and sometimes the priests' telling - modest fee, immense age | Temple, tombs and palace sites woven into one private day around your questions | The walking version of the same story at group price |
| Honest note | No button - pay at the hall. The temple asks quiet more than money | Pre-wave privilege: private guides still have open calendars here | Young listing - the valley's English supply is a season old |
| Check Availability | Check the guided walk |
Ways to Include the Temple
Every valley loop passes the first temple. Free cancellation on all.
In 596, when the Soga clan wanted to prove that the new continental religion had arrived to stay, they built Japan’s first full-scale Buddhist temple here - a three-hall giant whose footprint markers still ring today’s humble successor hall. Inside sits the Great Buddha of Asuka: cast in 609, attributed to the court sculptor Tori Busshi, and generally regarded as Japan’s oldest dated great bronze Buddha. The face is scarred, patched and utterly present - a gaze that has held its seat while capitals moved, dynasties turned and the temple around it burned and shrank.
That’s the right frame for a visit: you’re not coming for architecture (Nara’s giants dwarf this hall) but for seniority - the actual starting point of a religious and artistic tradition everything from [Todai-ji] to Kamakura descends from. Ten minutes by bike from Ishibutai, it slots into every loop of the valley; the private ancient-capital day gives the temple and its Soga patrons the connected telling they deserve, and the from-Nara pairing sets the first temple against the giants that followed it - the best one-two in Japanese Buddhism.
Guest Reviews
What Visitors Say
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See All ReviewsReady to See Where Japan Began?
Guided cycling, private heritage days and the from-Kyoto route - all with free cancellation. The crowds are a year away; the stones are not. Starting from $219 per person.
Browse the Asuka SectionsAsuka-dera Questions
Everything you need to know before you visit Asuka.
It's Japan's first full-scale Buddhist temple - founded 596 by the Soga clan - which is the honest phrasing: older worship sites existed, but this was the first true temple complex, and its lineage (later Gango-ji in Nara) carries the seniority. The current hall is a modest successor on the original footprint.
Cast in 609 and attributed to Tori Busshi, it's generally regarded as Japan's oldest dated great bronze Buddha - patched and fire-scarred across fourteen centuries, but still sitting where it was installed, which almost no other statue of its era can claim.
A few hundred yen at the hall entrance - like everything in the valley, pocket-change admission. It's a short pedal from Ishibutai and slots naturally into any cycling loop.
Still have questions? Email us at info@asukajapan.com