Kairyuo-ji

You walk in through a Muromachi-period gate and along a short path between earthen walls, and the noise of the road behind you drops away fast. That path is half the reason I like Kairyuo-ji. The other half is in a plain little building beside the main hall, the West Golden Hall, where a five-storey pagoda 4.01 metres tall has stood indoors since the Nara period. You cannot go into the hall; you look at the pagoda through the open doors. It was designated a National Treasure in 1951 as a building, not as a craft object, and the temple calls it the smallest National Treasure five-storey pagoda in Japan. The details, from the bracketing to the way each storey is made slimmer than the one below, follow the building methods of the early eighth century. The spire on top is a 1906 replacement. A matching pagoda once stood in an East Golden Hall facing it, until that hall was lost in the early Meiji years; only its platform is left. The West Golden Hall keeps its Nara-period size and plan, though it was heavily repaired in the Kamakura period.

The temple sat in the north-east corner of Empress Komyo's palace, which is why it was also called Sumidera, the corner temple. Tradition dates it to 731. The monk Genbo, back from China after surviving a storm by chanting the Sea Dragon King sutra, became its head priest, and the temple took that sutra's name. It also holds an eighth-century copy of the Heart Sutra known as the Sumidera Shingyo, and calls itself the original home of Heart Sutra copying; you can copy it yourself in the hall beside the West Golden Hall.

The main hall's Eleven-faced Kannon, 94 cm, made by a Kei school sculptor in the Kamakura period, is normally seen through a curtain. It is opened in late March to early April, early May, and late October to early November; the autumn 2026 dates are 24 October to 10 November. Photography and lights are banned in the main hall, and it gets crowded during openings. From late March into early April the grounds turn white with snow willow.