Hotel Nikko Nara

Kofukuji Temple is located at the entrance of Nara Park, very close to Kintetsu Nara Station, where it has been for almost thirteen hundred years. Kofukuji is also said to be a clan Temple to the patron deity of the Fujiwaras, a powerful aristocratic clan which wielded enormous influence in Japan over a five-century period beginning in the 8th century.
Kagami-no-Himemiko founded the original temple in 669. She was the consort of Fujiwara Kamatari, who was one of the founders of the Fujiwara family, which actually governed Japan from the seventh to the eleventh centuries.
The original temple was located in Yamashina Suehara, in what is now Kyoto Prefecture, and it was used as the private place for worship of Fujiwara Kamatari. In 678, it was moved to Umayasaka in the Asuka district of Nara Prefecture, where the capital was located, and was re-named Umayasaka Temple. Three years after Heijokyo was established as the capital in 710, this temple was moved to its present site and renamed as Kofukuji.
Its five-storied pagoda, which has become a symbol of Nara, has been ravaged by fire many times over the temple's history; the current pagoda, rebuilt in the 15th century, recreates the magnificence of the Tempyo-period style of architecture.

There's lots of space surrounding this pagoda exposed to the sun. On the very hot day, I found a tree about 50m away for some shelter from the scorching sun and took a picture of the pagoda from there.