Otagi Nenbutsu-ji

Most of Arashiyama's visitors turn back at the bamboo grove. Keep going up the old Atago road through Saga-Toriimoto and, at the very top, you reach a temple whose hillside is crowded with 1,200 small stone figures, each with its own face. Some are laughing, some praying, some look half asleep, and a few hold objects that give away their carver's hobbies.

They are newer than they look. The temple itself is old: it was founded in 766 by Empress Shotoku in what is now the Matsubara area of Higashiyama, washed away by a Kamo River flood, and rebuilt in the tenth century by the monk Senkan, whose chanting of the nenbutsu gave it its name. In 1922 the hall and gate were moved out here to Saga to save them. By the war it had no priest, and a typhoon in 1950 badly damaged the grounds, the buildings and the statues.

In 1955 the Buddhist sculptor and restorer Nishimura Kocho became head priest. In the early 1980s he started a ten-year project: ordinary visitors, most of whom had never carved anything, made the 1,200 rakan (disciples of the Buddha) under his guidance. Forty years of moss have since settled them into the slope, and that is what makes the place: nothing here is grand, and much of it is funny.

The main hall dates from the middle of the Kamakura period and is an Important Cultural Property. The Jizo hall holds a Heian-period Jizo said to protect against fire. Admission is 1,000 yen; children aged 10 and under are free. It is open 9:00 to 16:00 and closed every Wednesday and Saturday, so check the day before you make the trip out. In November the maples above the statues turn, and the temple holds a Tengu Feast on the second Sunday of the month.

Getting here is the hard part. Kyoto Bus routes 62, 92 and 94 stop at Otagi-dera-mae, about 15 minutes from Hankyu Arashiyama Station, but only about once an hour. Walking from JR Saga-Arashiyama Station takes about an hour, mostly uphill; a taxi from its north exit takes about five minutes and costs around 1,500 yen.