Kiyomizu-dera

The wooden stage of Kiyomizu-dera juts out over the hillside, supported by a massive grid of hundred-year-old zelkova pillars that use no nails. It holds the main hall, built in sixteen thirty-three by the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu. Pilgrims have climbed this slope for over a thousand years, drawn by the Otowa Waterfall that flows beneath the temple. When the monk Enchin first arrived in the eighth century, he followed a golden stream to find this spot, where he carved a statue of Kannon.