Yamagata · YamaderaNo.583★★★Open in map →
Yamadera Risshakuji
— The cliff temple above the Tachiya valley
A Tendai temple built into a tuff cliff above the Tachiya valley in eastern Yamagata, reached by a long stone stair. The halls at the top look out over the whole valley, and the gate opens early enough to climb ahead of the crowd.
- FromYamadera Station (JR Senzan Line)
- 5–10 min on footJR Senzan Line, station at the foot
- Yamadera Risshakuji
Where it is
9 more notes in Yamagata · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Konpon Chudothe main hall at the foot of the climb, keeper of the flame brought from Enryakuji
- Semizukaa stone marker partway up holding the slip on which Basho's verse was written
- Nioumonthe gate that opens the last stretch of the stair, a guardian figure on each side
- Nokyodo and Kaizandoa small red sutra hall on its own pillar of rock, the founder's hall standing beside it
- Godaidoa wooden platform built out over the cliff, the valley and the river laid out beneath
How to actually get there
- Yamagata or Sendai → Yamadera Station on the JR Senzan Line.
- Yamadera Station → the foot of the steps, along a flat approach street.
- Pay at the gate, then climb past Semizuka and the Nioumon to the halls at the top.
- Come down the same stair and finish at the Konpon Chudo by the entrance.
- JR Senzan Line to Yamadera Station
- The Senzan Line runs between Yamagata and Sendai and stops at Yamadera. The station is the temple's front door and was built in a shrine-and-temple style for exactly that reason. From the platform the cliff and its halls are already in view, and the foot of the steps is five to ten minutes away on level ground.
- Back from Yamadera Station
- The same line carries you on to Sendai as easily as back to Yamagata, which makes the temple a natural break between the two cities. Trains are not frequent, so read the departure board on the way in rather than after you come down the steps.
About the place
Risshakuji occupies a wall of tuff above the Tachiya river in eastern Yamagata city, and the temple is built into the rock rather than beside it. A stone stair of 1,015 steps runs from the gate at the foot to the Okunoin at the top, threading between boulders, cut niches and a scatter of subtemples. Halls stand wherever the rock offered a ledge; one small sutra hall sits on an isolated pillar of stone with the founder's hall beside it. From the platform of the Godaido the whole valley opens out, and the river and the station lie directly below your feet.
How to enjoy it
Entry opens at eight in the morning from April to November, and half an hour later, with an earlier close, from December to March. Starting at opening buys you the upper halls before the day fills them, and most people need an hour and a half to two hours for the climb and the way back down. The order also matters: leaving the Konpon Chudo until the descent means you finish somewhere quiet rather than queueing there first.
Background & history
Temple tradition dates the founding to 860, when the monk Ennin, known as Jikaku Daishi, opened it by imperial request. The main hall, the Konpon Chudo, was rebuilt in 1356 by Shiba Kaneyori, the first lord of Yamagata Castle; it is framed largely in beech and is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property. Inside it burns a flame divided from the lamp at Enryakuji, the head temple of the Tendai school. Matsuo Basho reached Yamadera in 1689 on the journey recorded in Oku no Hosomichi and wrote here of cicada voices soaking into the rock.
Before you go
- Cash
- Entry to the mountain is 500 yen for adults from junior high school age and 200 yen for children from four years old, taken at the gate where the steps begin. The temple lists separate charges for its treasure house and for inner-sanctuary worship at the main hall.
- Before you go
- From December to March the mountain opens later and closes earlier, and the stone steps take snow and ice; shoes that grip matter more than pace. Weather on the rock turns quickly in any season, and the upper halls are fully exposed.
- Another way
- From Sendai the Senzan Line reaches Yamadera without a change, so the temple works from the Miyagi side as easily as from Yamagata. By car, Yamagata-kita on the Yamagata Expressway is the nearest exit and the paid car parks sit around the station.
- After you get off
- Cross the river from Yamadera Station and the approach street runs straight to the foot of the steps, level the whole way. The climbing starts after that, not before.