Prince Shotoku (574-622) was not yet twenty when he championed Buddhism against the powerful Mononobe clan, which backed Japan's indigenous Shinto traditions. When the pro-Buddhist Soga clan prevailed in a decisive military victory, Shotoku vowed to build a temple honoring the Four Heavenly Kings who had, he believed, secured the triumph. Three Korean carpenters from the kingdom of Baekje brought the technical knowledge needed for the project. The temple they built followed a strict north-south axis -- a five-story pagoda, a Golden Pavilion housing an image of the Bodhisattva Kannon, and a lecture hall, all enclosed within a covered corridor with three gates. This layout, known as the Shitennoji-style arrangement, became the template for Buddhist temple construction across Japan for generations.

What made Shitennoji revolutionary was not its pagoda but the four institutions Shotoku attached to it. The Kyoden-in served as a center of religious education and research. The Seyaku-in functioned as a pharmacy, preparing medicines from herbs. The Ryobyo-in operated as a hospital, treating the ill regardless of their ability to pay. And the Hiden-in provided shelter and sustenance for the elderly, orphaned, and destitute. Three of these four institutions are documented as functioning within the temple grounds during the Kamakura period, centuries after Shotoku's death. The model was so ahead of its time that scholars point to Shitennoji as one of the earliest examples of organized social welfare in East Asia -- a prototype for what modern nations would not systematize until the 19th and 20th centuries.

Shitennoji has burned, collapsed, and been rebuilt so many times that impermanence feels baked into its identity. The 1934 Muroto typhoon toppled the five-story pagoda into rubble. American bombing raids in 1945 destroyed much of what remained. Each time, the temple was reconstructed following the original architectural plans, maintaining the precise north-south axis Shotoku established. The current buildings, completed in 1963, are reinforced concrete -- a concession to practicality that Osaka's citizens accepted in exchange for a temple that could survive what nature and war kept throwing at it. Within the Kameido hall sits a 7th-century turtle-shaped stonework, one of the few artifacts to survive from the temple's early centuries. The twin stone turtles, carved from single blocks of Tatsuyama stone, were once used for state water rituals. Today they serve a gentler purpose: visitors float small wooden tablets inscribed with ancestors' names on the water as a memorial offering.

West of the main compound stands a stone torii -- unusual for a Buddhist temple, where torii gates typically belong to Shinto shrines. This particular gate carries a poetic explanation: it is said to mark the eastern entrance to Sukhavati, the Pure Land of the West in Buddhist cosmology. The idea is that the setting sun, viewed from this gate, illuminates the path to paradise. On the 21st of each month, a flea market fills the temple grounds with vendors selling everything from antiques to street food, drawing crowds who browse beneath the pagoda's shadow. The monthly bazaar traces its roots to memorial observances for Prince Shotoku, whose death anniversary falls on the 22nd day of the second month. After World War II, Shitennoji declared independence from the Tendai school of Buddhism and established its own Wa sect, completing a transformation from branch temple to autonomous spiritual institution.

Standing amid Osaka's dense urban grid, Shitennoji occupies a remarkable pocket of calm. The Abeno Harukas skyscraper, one of Japan's tallest buildings, rises just to the south. Tennoji Station, one of Osaka's busiest rail hubs, sits a fifteen-minute walk away. Yet within the temple walls, the geometry that Shotoku prescribed in the 6th century -- pagoda before hall, hall before lecture room, all on a single axis -- remains intact. The temple is designated as a Historic Site of Japan, and its collection includes items classified as National Treasures spanning archaeological materials, paintings, swords, and historical writings. For a place that has been knocked down by typhoons, consumed by fire, and leveled by bombs, Shitennoji endures not because its stones are old but because its idea -- that a temple should heal and shelter as much as it prays -- has never gone out of date.