Rokuharamitsuji Temple

Rokuharamitsuji stands quietly among close-packed houses, the seventeenth site of the Saigoku pilgrimage. Its treasure house behind the main hall holds a number of images important to Japanese art history — a seated portrait of Taira no Kiyomori, and the figure of the priest Kuya with six small Amida Buddhas emerging from his mouth as he chants the nenbutsu. Beyond the sacred tea served from 1 to 3 January and the lantern rite from 8 to 10 August, the temple is especially known for the Kuya leaping nenbutsu — the 'hidden nenbutsu' — performed publicly from 13 to 30 December.