south gate

At the end of last year, I was walking around Todai-ji, one of the oldest and famous Japanese temples. The winter sky was so far and so clean as if it inhaled the dust and heat from the earth.

In the precinct, I preferred to look around the great south gate (which is in the pic) rather than its main building. Its vermilion faded away always made a slight, but deepest nuance of the presence the gate made in a thousand years.

The original main structure was made around A.D.750, but damaged by the earthquake and lost completely by the fire of war around 1180. Since then, there were three reconstructions of buildings and one fire tragedy.

The present south gate was reconstructed in 1199, a little bit long after the first fire, and had been there since then. The gate is also well known by two beautiful wooden statues that were in the both sides. They were made by the group of artists lead by two legendary sculptors.

Here was Nara, Japan.