Okadera Temple: Asuka’s Flower Temple and Japan’s First Yakuyoke Site

Nara · Asuka · Temple & Flowers

By Nobu · Updated June 2026 · Verified against the temple & Nara Prefecture tourism sites

Okadera — formally Ryūgaiji — in the old capital village of Asuka, Nara, is known as Japan’s first yakuyoke temple, the place people come to ward off bad luck. It’s the 7th stop on the Saigoku Kannon pilgrimage, founded in the 7th century around a pond where a priest is said to have sealed a dragon, and home to Japan’s largest clay Buddha. These days it’s just as loved as a flower temple: about 3,000 rhododendrons in spring, a pond of floating dahlias over Golden Week, and hydrangeas through June. Admission is ¥500.

Japan’s first temple for warding off bad luck

The temple traces its founding to the priest Gien, who is said to have established it in the 7th century (traditionally 663) by imperial wish. Its formal name, Ryūgaiji — “dragon-lid temple” — comes from the pond by the entrance: local legend has Gien subduing a dragon that was tormenting the farmers of Asuka, sealing it into the pond and capping it with a heavy stone. That stone is still there, and the spot is why Okadera became known as the country’s first yakuyoke temple, where people pray to turn away misfortune.

Inside the main hall sits the reason the pilgrims come: a seated Nyoirin Kannon from the Tenpyō era, 4.6 metres tall and made of clay — the largest clay Buddhist statue in Japan, and an Important Cultural Property. It’s long been venerated as a Kannon who protects women in particular. You’ll also pass the Niōmon gate and an Edo-period shoin, both Important Cultural Properties, and the temple’s vermilion three-story pagoda on the slope above.

The flowers — and when to come for them

Okadera earns its nickname as a flower temple honestly. The grounds hold around 3,000 rhododendrons, and when the “rhododendron path” up to the inner sanctuary fills in, the whole hillside turns pink — usually mid-April into early May. Over Golden Week the temple floats dahlias across its pond and water basins in the famous flower pond (hana-no-ike) by the gate; in 2026 that runs April 25 to May 6. Then come the hydrangeas: Okadera is one of four temples in the Yamato Kannon “Ajisai Corridor” (with Murōji, Hasedera and Tsubosaka-dera), and in 2026 the joint event runs June 6 to July 5, with the hydrangeas themselves good from late May into early July.

The detail people photograph most is the hana-chōzu — the stone water-basins filled with floating blooms. In hydrangea season they brim with blue and pink heads, often mixed with dahlias, and a small stone Jizō sits in the middle of it all.

What to see on the grounds

Getting there

Okadera sits halfway up a hillside on the east side of Asuka. By train, take the Kintetsu line to Kashiharajingū-mae or Asuka station, then the Asuka loop bus (Asuka-shūyū bus) to the Okadera-mae stop — from there it’s about a 10-minute walk up to the gate. Asuka is small and flat at its centre, so plenty of people rent a bicycle at the station and ride between the village’s tombs, temples and the Ishibutai burial mound, with Okadera as the climb at the end. There’s parking near the temple if you drive.

Good to know