[2] The Kamiyodo temple ruins are located in paddy fields on the southern slope of a hill facing the Sea of Japan at the northwestern foot of Mount Daisen.

Archaeological excavations between 1991 and 1993 uncovered temple buildings of the late Asuka period (end of the seventh or beginning of the eighth century).

These were at the time identified as the earliest in Japan, alongside the wall paintings of the Hōryū-ji kondō in Ikaruga, Nara, to which they bora marked resemblance.

The site of what appears from its size, foundation stone, and fallen roof tiles to have been a further, three-story pagoda has been uncovered to the west of the Kondō.

[7] The range of pigments as much as the subject matter shows the impact of foreign culture from the mainland: unlike the limited pallette of the decorated tombs before the introduction of Buddhism, the painting fragments show the use of vermilion, red ochre, minium, yellow ochre, massicot, malachite, azurite, white clay, and lampblack ink.

[7][14] During excavation in 2004 of the Wakakusa-garan, however, the old Hōryū-ji complex before the 670 fire, hundreds of fragments of wall painting dating to the first half of the seventh century were unearthed, with heat-induced pigment alteration.

[15] Two fragments of fire-damaged plaster recovered from excavations of Yamada-dera in 1978 have also been recently attributed to a wall painting, of mid-seventh century date.

[18] Wall paintings of a similar date were uncovered in the five-storey pagoda of Hōryū-ji in the 1940s; these suggest the use of stencils and have been designated an Important Cultural Property.