Mii-dera Temple
Founded to honor an emperor who died amid a violent succession dispute — his son was killed by the very brother who then built this temple in his memory — the feud with rival Enryaku-ji eventually pushed both temples to become the first religious bodies in Japan to field permanent standing armies.
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One of Japan's four largest temple complexes, with 40 named buildings at the foot of Mount Hiei. Its name, "Temple of Three Wells," comes from springs once used to ritually bathe newborns. The head temple of the Jimon branch of Tendai, it spent centuries in violent rivalry with Enryaku-ji — the sister temple perched at the mountain's summit.
What to look for
- The Kondō (Main Hall), which houses a spring of sacred water still on site today
- The spread of 40 named buildings across the lower slopes — the scale surprises most visitors
- The mountain above: rival Enryaku-ji sits at the top, the other branch of the same Tendai sect
Located in Ōtsu, Shiga Prefecture — a short trip from Kyoto, with Lake Biwa (Japan's largest lake) close by.
Mii-dera Temple is one of 39 sights worth the detour in Kyoto, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Kyoto pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Kyoto
- Kiyomizu-dera TempleA monk traced a golden stream to its source on Mount Otowa in 778. Pilgrims are still arriving.
- Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion)A gold-wrapped pavilion torched by a novice monk in 1950 and rebuilt by 1955 — every gleaming surface you see is modern.
- Fushimi Inari-taishaTen thousand orange gates, every single one paid for by a Japanese business, tunnel up a sacred mountain.
- Heian-kyō (Kyoto)Japan's capital for over a thousand years — and by one legal argument, still.
- Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion)The silver coating was never applied — and that unfinished state became the point.
- Kyoto Imperial PalaceJapan's imperial seat for 538 years — until the emperor moved his residence to Tokyo and the palace lost its central role.