Horyuji owes its existence to Prince Shotoku, the regent credited with the early promotion of Buddhism in Japan. He founded the temple in 607, during the Asuka period, on a site in present-day Ikaruga, Nara Prefecture. The original complex burned in 670, but was rebuilt within decades -- and those replacement structures, remarkably, are the ones that still stand today. The West Temple's five-story pagoda and its Kondo, or Golden Hall, form the heart of the compound. Though the Kondo appears to be two stories from the outside, only its ground floor is functional -- the upper level is purely architectural, an ornamental layer beneath a sweeping hip-and-gable roof adorned with carved dragons and water deities. Inside, visitors look upward at the Shaka Triad, a bronze sculpture of the historical Buddha seated in meditation between two attendants, crafted by the master sculptor Tori Busshi in 623. These are not reconstructions or replicas. They are originals, standing where they were placed nearly 1,400 years ago.

The World Heritage designation encompasses 21 buildings in the Horyuji East Temple, 9 in the West Temple, 17 monasteries and auxiliary structures, and the three-story pagoda of Hokki-ji, a smaller temple nearby. Many of these buildings are individually designated as National Treasures of Japan. The East Temple is anchored by the Yumedono, or Hall of Dreams, an octagonal hall built in 739 over the site where Prince Shotoku is said to have meditated. The West Temple complex, with its pagoda and Kondo standing side by side rather than in a straight line, represents an architectural layout unique to Horyuji -- one that broke with the rigid axial symmetry imported from continental Asia and hinted at a distinctly Japanese sensibility emerging in temple design. Between them, the two temples house thousands of Buddhist sculptures, paintings, and ritual objects spanning the 6th through 8th centuries.

Japan is a country of earthquakes, humidity, and fire. The survival of these 7th-century wooden structures confounds expectations. Part of the answer lies in hinoki cypress, the timber used throughout Horyuji -- a wood prized for its natural resistance to rot, insects, and moisture. Part lies in the joinery: the buildings use interlocking bracket systems and flexible post-and-beam construction that absorbs seismic forces rather than resisting them rigidly. And part lies in centuries of deliberate, continuous care. Japanese temple maintenance follows a philosophy of cyclical renewal, replacing individual components as they deteriorate while preserving the overall structure and form. A beam here, a tile there, generation after generation -- the buildings endure not because they were frozen in time, but because they were continuously, carefully kept alive.

Beyond architecture, the Horyuji area monuments represent an unbroken record of cultural exchange between Japan, China, and Korea during a formative era of East Asian Buddhism. The Shaka Triad shows strong influences from Chinese Northern Wei dynasty sculpture. The Tamamushi Shrine, a miniature wooden shrine decorated with iridescent beetle wings, is one of the finest examples of Asuka-period lacquerwork in existence. The Kudara Kannon, a slender wooden bodhisattva figure over six feet tall, displays a grace that has captivated viewers for over a millennium. These objects were not excavated from tombs or pulled from museum storage. They remain in the buildings for which they were made, in the context their creators intended -- an arrangement almost without parallel in world art history.