Kofuku-ji began not in Nara but in Yamashina, near present-day Kyoto, in 669. Kagami-no-Okimi, wife of the powerful courtier Fujiwara no Kamatari, founded the original temple as a prayer for her husband's recovery from illness. When the capital moved to Fujiwara-kyo in 672, the temple was dismantled and reassembled there. When the capital shifted again to Heijo-kyo -- today's Nara -- in 710, the temple moved a second time, planted on the east side of the new city. It was Kamatari's son Fuhito who gave the temple its current name, and Fuhito who ensured that its position in the new capital was strategically prominent. From the start, Kofuku-ji was not merely a place of worship. It was the tutelary temple of the Fujiwara, and its fortunes rose and fell with the family's political power.

The Fujiwara clan's grip on power operated through marriage as much as through politics. Fuhito's daughter married Emperor Shomu and became Empress Komyo, one of the most devout Buddhist patrons in Japanese history. In 730, her conversion and dedication to the faith led her to order construction of new temple buildings, structures that would eventually be designated National Treasures. This pattern -- imperial marriage securing religious patronage securing political influence -- was the Fujiwara blueprint. When other great Nara temples like Todai-ji declined after the capital moved yet again to Heian-kyo (Kyoto) in 794, Kofuku-ji held on. The Fujiwara connection kept resources flowing even as the city around it lost its governmental importance. The temple retained enough influence to sway the imperial court, and historical records note that this influence was exerted by aggressive means when diplomacy failed -- a polite way of saying the temple maintained armed monks.

The history of Kofuku-ji is a catalog of destruction and reconstruction. Civil wars, accidental fires, and sieges leveled the compound repeatedly over the centuries. Each time, the Fujiwara and their allies rebuilt. But not everything came back. The Nandaimon great south gate, the Chumon middle gate, one of the three original golden halls, and the connecting corridors were eventually lost permanently -- their foundations visible today only as outlines in the ground. The structures that survived or were reconstructed span a remarkable range of dates: the three-storied pagoda from 1185, the five-storied pagoda from 1426, the Tōkon-do Eastern Golden Hall from 1425, and the Nan'endo hall from 1789. The most recent major addition is the Central Golden Hall, whose reconstruction was completed in 2018 after decades of planning and fundraising, restoring a building that had been absent from the skyline for over a century.

Kofuku-ji's artistic legacy extends far beyond its walls. The temple's collection of sculptures is considered among the finest in Japan, with multiple works designated National Treasures. The dry-lacquer statues of the Devas of the Eight Classes, including the hauntingly serene three-faced Ashura figure, are among the most reproduced images in Japanese Buddhist art. The Ten Great Disciples, the Thousand-armed Kannon, and works attributed to the great sculptor Kokei fill the temple's halls. But some of the most important pieces are no longer in Nara at all. The Boston Miroku, the oldest known sculpture by the master Kaikei, left the temple's collection in 1906 and now resides at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The Burke Jizo, also by Kaikei, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Nara-period statues of Brahma and Indra made their way to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. A seated Ragaraja from 1256 sits in the Nara National Museum. The temple's artistic influence is, quite literally, worldwide.

For most visitors, Kofuku-ji is the five-storied pagoda reflected in Sarusawa Pond, surrounded by the free-roaming sacred deer that have inhabited Nara Park for centuries. The pagoda, standing just over 50 meters tall, is the second tallest wooden pagoda in Japan. It serves as the national headquarters of the Hosso school, one of the six schools of Nara Buddhism, making it both a tourist landmark and a living center of doctrinal study. The temple sits on open ground without the walled enclosure typical of many Japanese temple complexes -- a consequence of the lost gates and corridors -- giving it an unusually accessible, parklike atmosphere. Kofuku-ji does not hide behind walls. After thirteen centuries of relocation, destruction, and rebuilding, it stands in the open, generating blessings for anyone who walks through.