Kiyomizu-dera Temple

Overview

Kiyomizu-dera is a Tendai Buddhist temple in Motoyoshi, Setaka-machi, Miyama City, Fukuoka Prefecture. Its honorary mountain name is Motoyoshizan, its temple name is Fumon-in, and its principal image is a Senju (Thousand-Armed) Kannon. As the 16th site of the Kyushu Saikoku pilgrimage and the 28th of the Chikugo Thirty-Three Kannon circuit, this venerable temple draws many devotees. Cradled in wooded hills, its grounds preserve a three-story pagoda and the celebrated abbot's-quarters garden, making it one of the Chikugo region's finest temples in every season.

Highlights

• ●A Tendai temple linked by legend to Saicho, enshrining a Thousand-Armed Kannon
• ●A three-story pagoda (modeled on Shitenno-ji's pagoda), a Prefectural Cultural Property
• ●The abbot's-quarters garden attributed to Sesshu (the Sesshu Garden)
• ●The 1745 main gate, also a Prefectural Cultural Property

History

According to temple tradition, Kiyomizu-dera was founded in the Heian period by Saicho (Dengyo Daishi). Saicho traveled to Tang China in 804 and 805, mastered Tendai Buddhism, and returned to Japan, after which a bird is said to have guided him to Mount Motoyoshi. There he carved a pair of Kannon statues from nemu trees in the mountains, enshrining one at Kyoto's Kiyomizu-dera and the other at this temple. The main gate was built in 1745 by Tachibana Sadanori, lord of the Yanagawa Domain. The three-story pagoda, modeled on the five-story pagoda of Shitenno-ji in Osaka, was first built in 1836 and rebuilt in its present form in 1984. Both the gate and the pagoda are designated Prefectural Cultural Properties.

Map

33.1511, 130.5254 · Wikidata

Suggested itinerary

1. 1From JR Setaka Station, continue by bus or car to the foot of Mount Motoyoshi
2. 2Pass through the 1745 main gate and pray to the Senju Kannon in the main hall
3. 3Take in the beauty of the Sesshu Garden at the abbot's quarters
4. 4Walk on to the three-story pagoda, and enjoy the autumn foliage in fall

Did you know?

💡 The abbot's-quarters garden is attributed to the Muromachi-period painter-monk Sesshu and is known as the Sesshu Garden. Because it shares the tradition of a founding by Saicho with Kyoto's famous Kiyomizu-dera, it is sometimes called the other Kiyomizu-dera, and it is an important stop on Kyushu's Kannon pilgrimage routes. Note too that its three-story pagoda takes the pagoda of Osaka's Shitenno-ji as its model.

Nearby spots