Kokawa-dera Temple

Walk the approach from JR Kokawa Station and a large gate appears against the green slope of Mount Fumo, which gives the temple its mountain name (sangō). Kokawa-dera in Kinokawa is the head temple of the Kokawa Kannon school, and its principal image is the Thousand-Armed, Thousand-Eyed Kannon. As Temple No. 3 of the Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage, it has welcomed pilgrims for centuries.

Temple tradition says Otomo no Kugoko founded it in 770, though whether this is historical fact is uncertain. It was known as a Kannon sanctuary in the Heian period, and in the Kamakura period it was a major Tendai temple with warrior monks and extensive lands. In 1585, however, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Kishu campaign burned the entire mountain, and a great fire in 1713 destroyed most buildings except the great gate. Most of today's halls were rebuilt after that. After the war the temple left the Tendai school and became the Kokawa Kannon school.

The star of the precinct is the rock garden spread on both sides of the stone steps that climb from the gate to the main hall. On either side of steps about three meters high, large boulders of green chlorite schist are set in great numbers, and the garden doubles as a retaining wall. The gaps between stones are filled with clipped azaleas, and junipers, weeping cherries and sago palms add color. On the left a dry waterfall, a stone bridge and a crane-and-turtle island are suggested symbolically, and the treatment of the stones grows lighter toward the right. The composition is unusual for a garden and shows a gorgeous Momoyama-period style; it is thought to date from no later than the early Edo period. It was designated a National Place of Scenic Beauty in 1970.

Among the buildings, the main hall, great gate, middle gate and Senju-do are nationally designated Important Cultural Properties, and the Dono-do is designated by Wakayama Prefecture. The principal image is a hidden Buddha with no record of public display, but in 2008 the Thousand-Armed Kannon in the neighboring Senju-do was specially unveiled. The temple also holds the color-on-paper handscroll Kokawa-dera Engi Emaki, designated a National Treasure, a precious pictorial record of the temple's origins.

For an easy route, pass through the great gate, then the middle gate, the rock garden and the main hall. Looking down on the garden from the top of the steps shows the undulation of the rocks well. Azaleas and weeping cherries are planted in the garden, but stone and buildings are the real subject here, so daytime light is best. Allow about an hour to walk around the grounds.

Other old temples and shrines of the Kino River basin lie nearby: Negoro-ji (about 8 km), Niutsuhime Shrine (about 11 km) and Jison-in (about 13 km). The location fits well into a Saigoku pilgrimage or a tour of temples and shrines along the Kino River.