YAKUSHI-JI

temple complex dedicated to Yakushi, the Healing Buddha, in Nara, Japan. It was established about 690 outside Nara, and in 718 it was refounded within the city. The only one of the original buildings to have survived is the three-storied eastern pagoda, which is one of the finest examples of religious architecture of the Nara period (AD 710784). Yakushi-ji has many treasures of Japanese art, the most famous being the Nara-period sculpture group known as the Yakushi triad (statues of Buddha, Nikko, and Gakko).