Features:
Another variation, discovered through the excavations of the Yamada-dera, a lost temple originally dated 643, is a difference in the style of the corridor. Yamada-dera had thick horizontal poles placed close together in the windows, while those at Hōryū-ji are thinner, and spaced at larger intervals.

Major Asuka style characteristics are seen in Hōryu-ji, and resembling designs found in the Yungang Grottoes (Northern Wei), are the entasis columns, and the railings, decorated with repeat-patterned Buddhist swastika (卍字崩し高欄 manji kuzushi koran), above inverted "V" shape supports (人字形割束 ninji gata warizuka). Another notable Asuka style element, found only in Japan, is a cloud-shape hybrid bracket supporter (a 組物 kumimono; (hybrid) of 雲斗 kumoto and 雲肘木 kumohijiki). The only surviving originals are in Hōryu-ji. These characteristics of Asuka style are not seen in Nara period temples.

Japan is a wet country with roughly double China's annual precipitation. So, to keep rainwater from running off the building and onto the soil surrounding the foundation, potentially causing the pagoda to sink, builders extended the eaves far away from the walls, constituting up to 50 percent or more …show more content…
In December of 1993, Hōryū-ji, as a unique storehouse of world Buddhist culture, became the first treasure of any kind in Japan to be selected by UNESCO as part of the World Heritage. The treasures of the temple are a time capsule of Buddhist art from the sixth and seventh century. Many of the frescoes, statues, and other pieces of art within the temple, as well as the architecture of the temple's buildings themselves, exhibit a strong cultural influence from China, Korea and India, and illustrate the cultural links among the countries of East