A temple hall on a wooden stage built out over the hillside, then a slope of old stone lanes and tea shops down to Kyoto's best-known pagoda.
Kiyomizu-dera was founded in the 8th century on the slopes of eastern Kyoto. Its main hall stands on a great wooden stage held 13 metres above the valley by a lattice of pillars, fitted together without nails.
"Jumping off the stage at Kiyomizu" is the Japanese way of saying you're taking a big leap. From the boards you look across a sea of maples to the city, which is why the place is packed in November.
Below the hall, the Otowa spring falls in three thin streams. Visitors catch the water in long-handled cups; each stream is said to bring something different, and drinking from all three is considered greedy.
Then you walk down. Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka are stepped lanes of wooden houses, now tea rooms and craft shops, leading to the five-storey Yasaka pagoda. Legend says a stumble on Sannenzaka brings three years of bad luck, so watch the steps.
Go up first, then let gravity take you through the lanes.
Climb to the vermilion gate and three-storey pagoda while the slope is still quiet.
Walk onto the boards for the view, then carry on along the path to the far side for the classic picture of the stage on its pillars.
Queue at the spring below the hall and drink from one stream only.
Down Sannenzaka and round into Ninenzaka, past wooden shopfronts and tea houses. Detour into the narrow Ishibe-koji alley.
Finish beneath the Yasaka pagoda, then follow Nene-no-michi north to Kodai-ji and on into Gion.
.jpg?width=960)
_near_Kiyomizudera_Temple.JPG?width=960)
Buses to Gojozaka or Kiyomizu-michi, then a 10-minute walk uphill. From Gion it's about 20 minutes on foot.
In spring, summer and autumn the temple holds special night illuminations; check dates before you go.
Many shops on the lanes ask you not to eat while walking. If you rent a kimono, mind the hems on the steps.
Kyoto practical notes →Photographs from Wikimedia Commons and Pexels under their licences.
.jpg){kind=link}
_near_Kiyomizudera_Temple.JPG){kind=link}
