Yoshiminedera Temple

Yoshiminedera stands on the slope of Mount Shaka and is the twentieth site of the Saigoku Kannon pilgrimage. Buildings lost in the Onin War were rebuilt in the Edo period by Keishoin. Its celebrated feature is the Yuryu pine, whose trunk runs 11 metres north and some 28 metres west — a designated national natural monument. It once extended further north, but about 15 metres had to be cut away in 1994 after pine beetle damage. Stonework and lanterns are set throughout, and the clipped plantings stacked up the slope make the garden read as though the deep mountains simply continue on beyond it.