Lantern stairs
Red lanterns.
Hyppolyte de Saint-Rambert — CC BY 4.0 · Hyppolyte de Saint-Rambert — CC BY 4.0 · Daderot — CC0 · KimonBerlin — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Hyppolyte de Saint-Rambert — CC BY 4.0
Kurama-dera is a Buddhist temple in the far north of Kyoto, at the foot of Mount Kurama in wild surroundings, about 12 km from the city centre in a straight line, and it holds several National Treasures of Japan. It was founded in the 8th century; the story goes that a disciple of the Chinese monk Jianzhen dreamt in 772 that Mount Kurama held spiritual power and built a temple here. It burned many times in the Middle Ages, but its treasures were rescued every time, and people still say mountain spirits live in the area. From the gate you climb a long stairway lined with red lanterns through cedar and maple forest to the main temple terrace, which looks out over forested mountain ridges. The maples turn bright red in autumn. The temple has its own cable car that cuts part of the climb. From the temple a mountain trail leads through the forest down to Kibune village and its shrine in about an hour, so the two make one outing.
Red lanterns.
Mountain ridges.
About an hour.
Kurama, Sakyo ward, Kyoto, Japan
Yes, the temple's own.
By Eizan train from Kyoto.
