Kimiidera Temple

Kimiidera, on a hillside overlooking Wakayama Bay and the mouth of the Kinokawa River, was founded in 770 CE by the monk Iko, who is said to have trained in Tang-dynasty China before establishing the temple. It is the second official temple (fudasho) on the 33-temple Saigoku Kannon pilgrimage circuit, an organized route of Kannon-worship temples across western Japan dating in tradition to the 8th century. The temple's principal image is an eleven-faced, thousand-armed Kannon, and its multi-story pagoda and main hall, largely rebuilt during the Edo period after earlier fire damage, sit at the top of a stone stairway of 231 steps, which can also be climbed by a cable car for a small additional fee. From the main hall terrace, the temple commands a wide view over Wakayama Bay and the harbor below, a vista that has made it a noted scenic as well as religious site since the Edo period. Kimiidera's grounds combine a working pilgrimage temple -- with pilgrims stopping to have their pilgrimage books stamped -- with a public viewpoint over the bay, and its buildings retain the layered wooden hall-and-pagoda arrangement typical of Kii Province temple architecture.