Yamato Japan Timeline

607 CE – 1868 CE · 3 sites

All sites in this period

White plastered main keep and roofs of Himeji Castle, Japan

Country Record

Longest Recorded History in Japan

Himeji Castle

1333 CE – 1868 CE

Japan's finest surviving feudal castle — a white-plastered maze of keeps, gates, and moats in Hyogo Prefecture — draws enormous Chinese and English search traffic as the country's most complete "original" fortress and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993.

Early ModernMedieval

Country Record

Known by the Most Names in Japan

Tōdai-ji

728 CE – 800 CE

Tōdai-ji, founded in 728 CE, is a monumental Buddhist temple in Nara renowned for housing the colossal bronze Great Buddha and reflecting the zenith of imperial patronage during Japan's Nara period.

322

Early Medieval

The five-storey Gojunoto pagoda and Kondo (Main Hall) of Horyu-ji, the world's oldest surviving wooden buildings, Nara, Japan

Country Record

Oldest Temple in Japan

Horyu-ji

607 CE – 770 CE

The oldest surviving wooden building complex in the world — a Buddhist temple and monastery founded in 607 CE by Prince Shotoku on the Yamato Plain of Japan, containing structures that have stood for more than 1,400 years. The West Precinct's five-storey pagoda and Kondo (Main Hall) represent the culmination of early East Asian Buddhist architecture as it was transmitted from China and Korea to Japan.

Early Medieval