Wakayama Shi Travel Guide

Dojo-ji (Tennezan Dojo-ji) in Hidagawa-cho, Wakayama, is said to have been founded in 701 by vow of Emperor Monmu with Gien as founder, making it the prefecture's oldest temple. Begun as a Hosso temple, it passed to the Tendai sect in the 17th century and is the fifth stop of the Shin-Saigoku thirty-three Kannon pilgrimage. The main hall (1357) and Nio-mon gate are Important Cultural Properties, while the National Treasure 3.2-metre wooden Thousand-Armed Kannon (early Heian) with the Sunlight and Moonlight Bodhisattvas forms a trio of treasures; the Hoto-den hall lets visitors view the images up close with commentary. The temple is the stage of the Anchin and Kiyohime legend — Kiyohime, spurned, tracked the monk to the bell in which he hid and burned him alive — a tale retold in the Noh play 'Dojo-ji' and more than a hundred related works, told with picture scrolls at the Engi-do hall; women also pray here for love and good fortune.

Negoro-ji in Iwade, Wakayama, at the foot of the Katsuragi mountains is the head temple of the Shingi Shingon school founded by Kakuban. Once a city of some 270 subtemples and the warrior-monk Negoro-shu, it was burned by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1585. Its 1547 National Treasure great pagoda - Japan's largest wooden tahoto and one of the few open to visitors - anchors grounds famed for old cherries and the maple valley.

The Kishū Railway (Wakayama Electric Railway Kishi Line) is a local private line around Wakayama city, known for its characterful coloured trains and 'cat stationmaster' culture (Kishi Station was once run by 'Tama' the cat). It links Wakayama Castle, a zoo and rural scenery — a local slow-life and rail-fan favourite route.

Enjugahama is a pine-fringed beach on the coast of Wakayama Prefecture, named for the dense seaside pine grove that looks like drifting smoke. With an open shoreline and gentle sand, it is a nearby spot for locals to swim and stroll, and a relaxed place to watch the sunset over the Kii Channel. The pines and the sea make it good for slow walks, cycling and photography; in summer there is a swimming beach, while in other seasons it is quieter and you can take in the everyday scenery of the Kishu coast.

Sanada-an is properly called Zenmyosho-in, a temple built on the site of the house where Masayuki Sanada and his son Yukimura lived in exile at Kudoyama. After Sekigahara the two were first sent to Renjōjō-in on Mount Koya; because women were barred from the mountain, the family moved down to Kudoyama and stayed fourteen years, where Masayuki died. The monk Daian founded the temple here in 1741. The six-coin crest of the Sanada clan appears on doors and roof tiles throughout; the grounds hold a small shrine venerating Masayuki as Sanada Jinushi Daigongen, a well into which Yukimura is said to have sealed a thunderbolt, and the graves of Masayuki and his retainers. The paid Sanada Treasure Museum shows armour, spearheads and letters. It is also known for peonies and is the finishing point of the warrior procession at the Kudoyama Sanada Festival in early May. A burial mound 170 metres east is fabled as Yukimura's escape tunnel.

Kimii-dera, formally Kimiisan Kongōhō-ji Gokoku-in, stands on the western slope of Mt Nagusa in Wakayama, Japan. Tradition holds that the Tang monk Ikō founded it in 770; today it is the head temple of the Kuze Kannon sect and the second stop on the Saigoku Thirty-three Kannon pilgrimage. Its name comes from three springs on the mountain — Kisshō, Shōjō and Yōryū — counted among Japan's hundred famous waters and used for offerings and drinking for over a thousand years. Beyond the gate rise the 231 steps of the 'slope of ties', where the Edo merchant Kinokuniya Bunzaemon is said to have met his future wife and made his fortune, so pilgrims climb them praying for marriage and success. At the top stand the main hall, the hexagonal hall and the modern Daikōmyō-den with its great thousand-armed Kannon, above a view over Wakanoura Bay and the city. The temple is famous above all for cherry blossom: facing the sunny sea it blooms earliest in the Kansai region, the meteorological agency's reference tree grows here, and in late March pink cloud covers the hillside above the water.