Chuguji's origins lie in grief. According to the Heian-period text known as Prince Shotoku's Calendar, the great prince -- regent, reformer, champion of Buddhism in Japan -- converted the palace of his mother, Princess Hashihito no Anahobe, into a temple after her death in the early 7th century. The name itself offers a clue: Chuguji means "Middle Palace Temple," named because the building stood between two other palaces, Ashigamiya and Okamotomiya. Archaeological excavations confirm that the original temple was located about 500 meters east of its present site, where it occupied grounds measuring 130 meters east-to-west and 165 meters north-to-south. Roof tiles unearthed there date to the first half of the 7th century and match those found at Horyuji, linking the two temples from the very beginning. The original complex followed a layout modeled on Shitennoji in Osaka, with the Main Hall to the north and a pagoda to the south, their eaves presumed to have nearly touched.

The Miroku Bosatsu -- a representation of Maitreya, the future Buddha -- sits in contemplation, right leg crossed over the left knee, right hand raised with fingertips lightly touching the cheek. The statue dates to the Asuka period, sometime between the late 6th and early 8th centuries. Originally painted, the figure is now finished in a dark lacquer that gives the camphor wood a deep, almost luminous black surface. The pose is one of profound stillness: the bodhisattva considering the suffering of the world and the path toward its salvation. Art historians have noted the statue's remarkably balanced proportions and the subtlety of its carved expression, which changes character as the viewer moves around it. Designated a National Treasure, the Miroku Bosatsu is Chuguji's most celebrated object and one of the supreme achievements of early Japanese sculpture.

After Prince Shotoku died in 622, his consort Tachibana-no-Oiratsume commissioned an extraordinary work of textile art: the Tenjukoku Shucho Mandala, an embroidered depiction of the Land of Heavenly Longevity -- the paradise where the prince was believed to reside after death. The embroidery depicted one hundred tortoises, each bearing text, alongside scenes of the celestial realm. Over the centuries, the delicate fabric deteriorated badly. In the Edo period, surviving fragments were combined with sections of a Kamakura-period replica to create a composite piece that preserves at least a portion of the original vision. Also designated a National Treasure, the Tenjukoku mandala represents the oldest surviving embroidery artwork in Japan -- a tangible thread connecting the present to the grief and devotion of a 7th-century court.

Chuguji's fortunes rose and fell with the centuries. After the Heian period, the nunnery declined and its sectarian affiliation shifted from Hosso to Shingon. During the Sengoku period of civil war, the temple burned entirely. It was rebuilt at its present location -- immediately northeast of Horyuji -- around the end of the 16th century, when it became a monzeki temple, a high-ranking institution headed by members of the imperial family or court aristocracy. In 1602, an imperial princess was appointed abbess, restoring its status as a nunnery, and the temple was given the additional title of Ikaruga Palace. Chuguji is one of only three nunneries in the historical Yamato Province whose chief priestesses were imperial princesses. That lineage continues today: the temple remains an active convent, quiet and contemplative beside the bustle of its famous neighbor, a place where the presence of fourteen centuries of women's devotion lingers in the still air.