There are around 48 Bud­dhist mon­u­ments in the Horyu-ji area, in Nara Pre­fec­ture. Sev­er­al date from the late 7th or ear­ly 8th cen­tu­ry, mak­ing them some of the old­est sur­viv­ing wood­en build­ings in the world. These mas­ter­pieces of wood­en archi­tec­ture are impor­tant not only for the his­to­ry of art, since they illus­trate the adap­ta­tion of Chi­nese Bud­dhist archi­tec­ture and lay­out to Japan­ese cul­ture, but also for the his­to­ry of reli­gion, since their con­struc­tion coin­cid­ed with the intro­duc­tion of Bud­dhism to Japan from Chi­na by way of the Kore­an penin­su­la.