Yamada-dera

right|thumb|290px|Model of Yamada-dera Temple at the time of its construction. A part of the 1/1000 model of Fujiwara-kyo in the Kashihara-shi Fujiwara-kyo reference room. was a Buddhist temple established in the Asuka period in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, Japan. The area was designated a National Historic Site in 1921, with its status elevated to a Special National Historic Site in 1952. It also forms part of a grouping of sites submitted in 2007 for future inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List: Asuka-Fujiwara: Archaeological sites of Japan’s Ancient Capitals and Related Properties. Excavations in the 1980s uncovered a well-preserved section of the temple's covered corridors that predate the surviving buildings of Hōryū-ji: "for the history of Japanese architecture, this discovery is of as great moment as the finding of the seventh-century Takamatsuzuka tomb paintings in March 1972 was for the history of Japanese art."

==History== Yamada-dera was established as a private temple by Soga no Kurayamada no Ishikawa no Maro. After drainage of the site, work began on the Kondō and surrounding corridors in 641. Although a member of the Soga clan, he was hostile to the main branch of the clan led by Soga no Emishi and Soga no Iruka. He conspired with Nakatomi no Kamatari and Prince Naka-no-Ōe in the Isshi incident of 645. However, four years later in 649, per the Nihon Shoki, Soga no Hyuga, Ishikawa no maro's half-brother, informed Prince Naka-no-Ōe that Ishikawa no Maro was plotting rebellion. When confronted, Ishikawa no Maro did not resist, but instead committed suicide in front of the Kondō of Yamada-dera along with his family.