The first official Buddhist temple in Japan, Shitenno-ji

Shitenno-ji temple is located in Tennoji ward, Osaka city.
The temple founded in 593 by the founder of Japanese Buddhism Prince Shotoku, as the first official Buddhist temple in Japan.
"Shitenno" means the Four Heavenly Kings who support Buddhism.

According to legend, while Prince Shotoku had conflicts with Mononobe clan, he wished to win and promised to found a temple of Shitenno for salvation of people in all over Japan if he could win.
After the victory over the conflicts, he founded Shitenno-ji temple as he had promised before.

As first temple of the kind, Shitenno-ji is a very unique one among Japanese temples.

The style of layout of the temple called "Shitenno-ji garan haichi (the Shitenno-ji building layout)" and it is oldest one of styles of Japanese temple layout.
Nowadays you rarely see the style in Japanese temples except Shitenno-ji.
Also the temple ground of Shitenno-ji is huge, so you can see interesting Buddhist buildings there.

In addition, they have a religious ceremony of Bugaku (the traditional dance with music came from Western Asia in ancient times) in April 23 (the death anniversary of Prince Shotoku).
Still we can see the traditional culture of ancient times in it.
The ceremony shows us how Prince Shotoku have been connected strongly to foreign cultures.

There are many sightseeing spots around Shitenno-ji such us the Tennoji park, Namba city or Tsuruhashi town.
You can visit all of them at one day, so I recommend you to tour around Shitenno-ji.