Kōryū-ji

photo by Yanajin33 · CC BY-SA 3.0

The wooden Miroku bears the number 1 on the list of Japan's National Treasures.

You get off the tram and the temple is right in front of you. The visit is a single hall, dark, where photography is not allowed: inside is a seated Miroku, with the right leg resting on the left knee and the fingertips to the cheek, carved from red pine wood. Around it, a row of sculptures from the seventh to the thirteenth century.

The oldest temple in Kyoto: the prefecture's tourism federation gives it as the oldest in Yamashiro Province, that is, the territory on which Kyoto was later built. It holds the Miroku seated in meditation (Miroku is the buddha that Buddhism awaits in a distant future), which is the piece entered at number 1 in the register of Japan's National Treasures.

ℹ️ ¥1,000 adults, ¥500 high school students, ¥400 elementary and junior high. Open 9:00–17:00 from March to November, 9:00–16:30 from December to February, 10:00–16:30 at New Year; it never closes. Photography is not allowed in the museum hall. ⚠️ ¥1,000 is expensive for Kyoto, and everything is inside that hall: the rest of the grounds is not much. On the other hand, the Randen tram station is outside the gate.

🚉 Uzumasa-Koryuji · 3 min walk

Sources: kyoto-kankou.or.jp · kyoto-kankou.or.jp

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