On the eastern hills of Kyoto, the great wooden veranda of Kiyomizu-dera juts out over a slope of maple and cherry, held up by a forest of pillars. The stage is about thirteen metres above the ground, and there is a Japanese saying, to jump off the stage of Kiyomizu, that means to take a bold, irreversible step. In the Edo period, people did really jump, hoping that survival would grant a wish, and a surprising number survived. The temple was founded in 778, and the present buildings date mainly from the 1630s, built without nails, using interlocking beams of Japanese zelkova and cypress.
Below the main hall, the Otowa waterfall splits into three streams, and visitors queue with long-handled cups to drink from them, each stream said to bring a different blessing, health, success or long life. Wisely, you are supposed to drink from only one. The name Kiyomizu means pure water, and this spring is the reason the temple stands where it does. Nearby is the little Jishu shrine, dedicated to love and matchmaking, with a pair of stones set several metres apart, and the tradition that if you can walk from one to the other with your eyes closed, your love will come true.
The approach is a lively, steep street of ceramics shops, sweet sellers and pickle merchants, running up from the district of Higashiyama through the lanes of Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka, where wooden houses have been preserved. It is magnificent early in the morning, and almost unbearable in the middle of a spring or autumn day, when crowds fill the slope. Go at opening time, or in the evening during the special illuminations, when the hall glows above the dark trees.
For a rider, the district is best reached by leaving the bike in a car park on the edge of the old city and walking uphill, as the lanes are narrow, partly pedestrian and busy with visitors. Kyoto's roads are slow and tidy, with low limits, and cameras and patrols enforce them. Fuel is available throughout the city of nearly one and a half million people, though stations are fewer in the old centre. Outside the city, the mountain roads north towards Kurama and Ohara and east over the hills towards Lake Biwa give real riding, with shaded forests of cedar, tight bends and quiet temples. Autumn leaves and early summer greenery are both worth the trip.