Kiyomizu-dera - The Stage Built Without Nails

Photo: KimonBerlin, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)

A stop on Kyoto: Higashiyama and Gion on Foot, a free self-guided tour.

You are standing at the vermilion Nio Gate of Kiyomizu-dera, the "pure water temple." Its founding story is a legend: in 778 a monk followed a dream to a spring on this hillside, and the general Sakanoue no Tamuramaro soon became its great patron. Records from that era are thin, but pilgrims have climbed this hill for well over a thousand years.

The main hall was rebuilt in 1633 under shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu after a fire. Its famous stage juts over the valley on a grid of huge zelkova pillars fitted together without nails, and its roof was rethatched in cypress bark in a restoration finished around 2020. Below the stage, three streams of the Otowa waterfall drop into a pool, and visitors queue to catch the water in long-handled cups.

Come early - the gates usually open around 6 a.m. - and you may have the hillside nearly to yourself. Bow at the gate, keep your voice low, and step around anyone at prayer.

Getting here: From the Kiyomizu-michi or Gojo-zaka bus stops on Higashioji-dori, walk uphill about 15 minutes along the shop-lined slope to the vermilion gate at the top.

Did you know?: Japanese has a saying, to jump off the stage at Kiyomizu, meaning to take the plunge on a big decision. People really did jump: the temple's Edo-period records list 234 leaps, most of them survived, and the practice was banned in 1872.

Photo op: Inside, walk past the main hall to the terrace of the Okunoin hall and look back: the whole stage and its pillar scaffolding stand out above the trees, with the city beyond.

More on Wikipedia: Kiyomizu-dera · Sakanoue no Tamuramaro · Tokugawa Iemitsu · Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto

Kiyomizu-dera - The Stage Built Without Nails

Stops on this tour