Yata-dera

For eleven months a year few people come up here. In June, a lot of people do.

Yata-dera is the common name of Kongosen-ji, a temple halfway up Yatasan in the Yata hills, 3.5 km west of the old castle town of Yamato-Koriyama. Temple tradition says Prince Oama, later Emperor Tenmu, climbed the mountain to pray for victory in the Jinshin War of 672 and had the temple built after he came to the throne. In the early ninth century the monk Manmai enshrined a Jizo here, and the place has been about Jizo ever since. Most of the Jizo images here join the thumb and forefinger of the right hand in a gesture borrowed from Amida, a type the temple calls Yata-style Jizo. Of the 48 sub-temples it once had, four remain.

The monks started planting hydrangeas around 1965, because the round flower heads look like the jewel Jizo holds. There are now about 10,000 plants of some 60 kinds, from climbing hydrangeas that start in mid-May to Chinese species that flower in September. The paid garden season runs from about the end of May to 30 June (in 2026, 30 May to 30 June), with entry at 700 yen for adults. Up on the hill the flowers come a week to ten days later than in the cities, so mid to late June is usually best, and rain does not spoil them. Tripods, monopods and drones are banned, and so is eating anywhere on the grounds. Come on a weekday if you can.

June is also the only time the main hall opens, for a 500 yen special viewing of the main Jizo and the other statues inside, several of them Important Cultural Properties. The Enma hall opens free over the same weeks.

Out of season the grounds are free. From the bus stop it is a steep climb up stone steps lined with small Jizo. On the path from the Daimonbo sub-temple to the main hall, look for the Miso-name Jizo, whose mouth people smear with homemade miso so that their own batch tastes better. Behind the temple, 88 stone Buddhas mark a mini Shikoku pilgrimage of about 3.5 km through the woods, which takes an hour and a half to two hours.

The bus is the weak point. Only four or five direct buses a day run from Kintetsu Koriyama.