Photos: Bernard Gagnon · CC BY-SA 3.0 (1, 2, 3) · tsuda · CC BY-SA 2.0 · shankar s · CC BY 2.0
Some of the clay roof tiles on Gangō-ji's Zenshitsu and Gokurakudō were made over 1,400 years ago by Paekche craftsmen for Hōkō-ji in Asuka. They were carried to Nara when the temple moved in 718, and are still on the roof.
Why it's unique
The Japanese government's own interpretive text calls them Japan's oldest roof tiles. No source supports a world claim, so this is a country-level record.
What makes it an experience rather than a fact is that you can learn to read the roof: the old tiles look different, and with the right vantage points you can find them yourself.
Before you go
The old tiles have no flange, so they overlap visibly, and they are reddish rather than grey. Compare the south and west sides of the Gokurakudō roof, and from the west side of the Fudoden stone field (浮図田) look at the Zenshitsu roof, where the right-hand end and the centre contrast.
The temple holds a candlelit Jizō-e on 23 and 24 August.
