Hannya-ji

From early October into November, Hannya-ji is mostly cosmos. The temple plants about 150,000 of them, in some 30 varieties, around its stone Buddhas, and it is known locally as the cosmos temple. The story it tells is that around 50 years ago, when the grounds were close to abandoned, the previous abbot found a single cosmos flowering and decided to grow more. In 2026 the flower-season fee applies from 1 October to 10 November: 700 yen instead of the usual 500, cash only. From 1 October the temple also sets out its glass cubes filled with cosmos heads in front of the main hall, added as the flowers open. The same trick is done in June with hydrangea in glass balls, about 300 plants, and there is yamabuki in spring and narcissus in winter.

The flowers are recent. The temple is not. Temple tradition credits a Goguryeo monk, Ekan, with founding it in the Asuka period, and says that in 735 Emperor Shomu buried the Great Wisdom Sutra (Daihannya-kyo) under a pagoda here to guard the northeast of the capital, which gave the temple its name. Taira no Shigehira's troops burned it in 1180, and it was rebuilt in the Kamakura period by the monk Eison and his circle. The 13-storey stone pagoda in the middle of the grounds dates from 1253 and was carved by the Song Chinese mason Yi Xingmo and his son. When it was taken apart for repair in 1964, a gilt bronze Amida and other objects were found inside; they are shown only during the temple's occasional special openings. The main hall is an Edo-period rebuild and holds a Monju riding a lion, made in 1324 for Emperor Go-Daigo.

The two-storey gate on the old Kyo-kaido road is a National Treasure and, the temple says, the oldest surviving gate of its type in Japan. It is kept shut because of its condition, so you go in through the car park on the south side, with the ticket desk halfway along. During the flower seasons tripods, monopods and pets are banned, and the paths between the beds get crowded on weekends. Mornings on weekdays are the easiest time to see the pagoda with flowers and without a crowd in front of it.