Kimiidera Temple

Introduction

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.

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