Hiraizumi

In the twelfth century, Hiraizumi flourished as the capital of the Northern Fujiwara clan, rivaling Kyoto in cultural splendor before its fall in 1189. This UNESCO World Heritage Site preserves some of Japan's most extraordinary Pure Land Buddhist architecture. At Chusonji temple, the Konjikido (Golden Hall) gleams under its protective covering, every surface sheathed in gold leaf, sheltering the mummified remains of three generations of Fujiwara lords. Nearby Motsuji offers the finest surviving example of a Pure Land garden, designed to manifest the Buddhist paradise on earth. Though the temple buildings were lost to repeated fires, the garden's careful composition of ponds, islands, and shorelines remains as serene as when monks first walked these grounds nine centuries ago.