The One Building the Warlords Did Not Burn
The Main Hall of Kiyomizudera (清水寺本堂, also called the Konpondo 根本堂) is a Muromachi period Buddhist hall in Kiyomizu-cho, Yasugi City, Shimane Prefecture, dated to 1393 and designated on 18 February 1904, making it an Important Cultural Property under the present Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties. This is the Kiyomizudera of the San'in coast, a Tendai temple on Mount Zuiko, and it should not be confused with the far better known Kiyomizudera in Kyoto or the Obaku-influenced hall of the same name in Nagasaki.
Temple tradition puts the founding in 587, the second year of Emperor Yomei's reign, by a monk named Sonryu. The record then goes quiet, and the temple is said to have fallen into disuse before a monk called Joen revived it in 806 under an edict of Emperor Heizei. In 847 Ennin, the Tendai master posthumously titled Jikaku Daishi, is said to have stopped here on his way back from Tang China, begun the Komyo Shingon rite, and brought the temple into the Tendai school. These accounts come from temple records rather than contemporary documents, so they are best treated as tradition.
What is firmly dated is the hall itself. The temple's grounds took roughly their present shape in 1393, and the Konpondo was raised in that year. Four ridge tablets survive and are designated together with the building.
Then came the sixteenth century. The Amago and Mori clans fought across this part of Izumo, and fire took every building on the mountain except this one. Restoration followed under Mori patronage and later under the Matsudaira lords of Matsue. At its height the temple had counted dozens of monks' quarters. The hall standing today is the survivor of that burning.
Seven Bays Square, and Five Buildings Deep
The Agency for Cultural Affairs records the structure precisely: seven bays along the ridge, seven bays across, single storeyed, hipped-and-gabled, roofed in wooden shingle. A square plan of that size is not common among surviving medieval halls in the region, and the shingle roof, laid in thin overlapping layers of split wood rather than tile, gives the eaves a soft edge that tile cannot produce.
The 1904 designation makes this one of the earliest heritage listings in Shimane. The registration number, 00318, places it in the first years of national protection, when the surveying of temple architecture across Japan had only just begun.
A dismantling repair completed in 1992 produced the most interesting single fact about the building. Investigation during the work established that the present hall is the fifth to stand on this spot, and the largest of the five. Successive halls had been raised, lost, and rebuilt larger, and the 1393 building is the point at which that sequence stopped.
Inside, the principal image is a Kannon of eleven faces, kept hidden in a finely lacquered shrine. Flanking it stand figures of the Four Heavenly Kings dated to the Heian period, the guardian deities of the four directions who appear in this arrangement in older esoteric halls. A second eleven-headed Kannon, a standing figure thought to have been carved by the tenth century, is itself an Important Cultural Property and is now kept in the temple treasure house; the temple explains that this earlier image was originally the hidden principal image, and that the four-armed Kannon now enshrined in the hall once stood back to back with it as a rear-facing Kannon.
Seven votive tablets hang in the hall. The oldest, a large black horse, dates to the Muromachi period. The one people come for shows the Ten Braves of Amago, and the temple describes it as the only surviving material depicting all ten of them together.
Climbing to the Hall, and What It Costs
The approach is a long flight of stone steps through standing cedar, some of it said to be a thousand years old. The precinct spreads across more than fifty thousand tsubo of hillside inside the Kiyomizu Gassan Prefectural Natural Park, with the halls set on terraces linked by further steps.
At the top of the last flight, look at the guardian lion-dogs. Their hindquarters ride higher than their shoulders, an uncommon posture, and locally the shape is read as a play on the phrase for things improving steadily from the tail end upward.
Entering the precinct costs nothing. The hall keeps working hours of 9:00 to 16:30, with prayer requests received until 16:00, and the gates themselves open early. Note that the temple has been running an adjusted schedule since September 2025, so the exact opening time is worth checking before an early start.
Two things do carry a fee and a reservation. The three storeyed pagoda of 1859, a Shimane Prefecture designated cultural property standing behind and above the main hall, can be climbed to the top floor for a view over the farmland and rooftops of the Yasugi basin. Local carpenters with no formal training in pagoda construction built it across three generations of work, and the carved dragons peering out from between the brackets under the eaves are the proof of what they taught themselves. The treasure house holds the older Kannon and a late Heian Amida triad. Each costs 500 yen for adults, 300 yen for junior and senior high school students, and 100 yen for elementary age and younger, with viewing between 9:00 and 16:00 and a break from 12:00 to 13:00. Book at least a week ahead. Reservations are not accepted at all between 1 December and 31 March, though the treasure house can be entered without booking during the spring and autumn special opening periods.
Zazen sitting and sutra copying are offered from April to the end of November, about an hour each, 1,000 yen per person, by prior arrangement. The grounds also hold a shukubo-style inn and shops selling Kiyomizu yokan, the sweet bean jelly that local tradition links back to Ennin along with the temple's vegetarian cuisine. Autumn colour and spring cherry are the busiest seasons.
Getting here means driving. Parking is free with space for a hundred cars, and the temple is about ten minutes from the Yasugi interchange or fifteen minutes from JR Yasugi Station by car. Adachi Museum of Art, known for its gardens, lies in the same city and pairs naturally with a morning at the temple.
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Q&A
- Is the Kiyomizudera in Yasugi the same as the famous Kiyomizudera in Kyoto?
- No. They are separate temples that share a name. The Yasugi Kiyomizudera is a Tendai temple in Shimane Prefecture whose main hall dates to 1393 and is an Important Cultural Property. The Kyoto temple is a World Heritage site with a National Treasure main hall. A third Kiyomizudera in Nagasaki also has a designated main hall.
- Can visitors enter the Main Hall of Kiyomizudera in Yasugi, and is there an admission fee?
- Entry to the precinct and the main hall is free. Hall operations run from 9:00 to 16:30 and prayer requests are taken until 16:00. The three storeyed pagoda and the treasure house are separate, charged, and require booking: 500 yen for adults, 300 yen for junior and senior high school students, 100 yen for elementary age and younger.
- Why is the Main Hall of Kiyomizudera an Important Cultural Property?
- It was designated on 18 February 1904, among the earliest listings in the prefecture. Built in 1393, seven bays square with a hipped-and-gabled shingle roof, it is the only building on the mountain to survive the Amago and Mori warfare of the sixteenth century, and repair work in 1992 confirmed it as the fifth and largest hall raised on the site.
- Can you climb the three storeyed pagoda at Kiyomizudera in Yasugi?
- Yes, with a reservation made at least a week in advance. Built in 1859 and designated by Shimane Prefecture, it opens to the top floor for views across the Yasugi countryside. Bookings are suspended entirely from 1 December to 31 March, and viewing pauses between 12:00 and 13:00 on open days.
- How do I reach Kiyomizudera in Yasugi, and is there parking?
- The temple sits at 528 Kiyomizu-cho, Yasugi City, roughly ten minutes by car from the Yasugi interchange and fifteen minutes from JR Yasugi Station. Free parking is available for about a hundred cars. From the car park the approach is a long stone stairway through old cedar, so allow time and reasonable footwear.
Basic Information
| Name | Main Hall of Kiyomizudera (清水寺本堂), also called the Konpondo; Mount Zuiko Kiyomizudera, Tendai school |
|---|---|
| Location | Kiyomizu-cho, Yasugi City, Shimane Prefecture (temple address: 528 Kiyomizu-cho) |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property (registration number 00318) |
| Year Designated | 18 February 1904 |
| Quantity | 1 building, with 4 ridge tablets as attached designated items |
| Dimensions | Seven bays along the ridge by seven bays across, single storey, hipped-and-gabled roof in wooden shingle; built 1393 |
| Owner | Kiyomizudera |
| Public Access | Precinct and main hall free; hall operations 9:00 to 16:30, prayer requests to 16:00. Pagoda and treasure house charged and by reservation: 500 yen adults, 300 yen junior and senior high school students, 100 yen elementary age and younger, viewing 9:00 to 16:00 with a break 12:00 to 13:00. No reservations 1 December to 31 March. Free parking for about 100 cars |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Main Hall of Kiyomizudera
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/102/2963
- Cultural Heritage Online: Main Hall of Kiyomizudera (Shimane)
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/177733
- Yasugi Kiyomizudera official site
- https://www.kiyomizudera.jp/
- Yasugi Kiyomizudera, viewing information and fees
- https://www.kiyomizudera.jp/visiting_information/
- Yasugi City Tourist Guide: Kiyomizudera
- https://yasugi-kankou.com/spot/kiyomizu-temple/
- Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, multilingual commentary database: Kiyomizudera
- https://www.mlit.go.jp/tagengo-db/R2-01640.html
Last verified: 2026.08.21