Hiraizumi Day Trip from Hanamaki Onsen

Hiraizumi’s World Heritage landscape

Chusonji, Motsuji, the Kanjizaio-in and Muryoko-in remains, and Mt Kinkeisan are Hiraizumi’s five World Heritage sites. They were inscribed in 2011. At the temple grounds, gardens and archaeological sites, you can see how people shaped a twelfth-century religious landscape. Open spaces and surviving foundations are as much a part of it as the buildings. Takkoku no Iwaya is another temple nearby, outside the inscribed group. Its hall stands against a cliff, beyond the route between Motsuji and Chusonji.

Getting to Hiraizumi

Via Hanamaki Station

1. From Yumoto, take the Hanamaki Onsen Line public bus to Hanamaki Station.
2. At Hanamaki Station, board a southbound JR Tohoku Main Line local for Hiraizumi. Stay on the same train to Hiraizumi Station.

The train ride is only part of the journey from the onsen. Walking from your hotel to the Yumoto bus stop and onward from Hiraizumi Station takes additional time. The bus costs ¥510 (about US$3.20) per adult each way. Buy the rail ticket separately.

Via Shin-Hanamaki and Ichinoseki

1. Reserve your hotel’s shuttle to Shin-Hanamaki Station.
2. At Shin-Hanamaki Station, board a southbound Tohoku Shinkansen for Ichinoseki. The ride takes roughly thirty minutes.
3. At Ichinoseki Station, change to a northbound Tohoku Main Line local for Hiraizumi. That ride takes about nine minutes.

Allow time between services at both stations. The two rail ride times exclude the shuttle and station waits.

Motsuji’s pond garden

Oizumi ga Ike lies at the center of Motsuji’s garden, with the low hill of Doyama behind it to the north. Along the pond, stones suggest beaches and rocky coasts. An upright rock and a dry-landscape hill rise above the shoreline. Water flows into the pond through a yarimizu feeder stream. Heian-period foundation stones mark the vanished temple buildings. The present main hall and Cultural Assets Repository stand within the grounds.

From Hiraizumi Station, walk 0.7 kilometers to Motsuji in about seven minutes.

Chusonji and Konjikido

Old cedars planted by the Date domain in the Edo period shade both sides of Tsukimizaka. From the foot of this uphill path, walk 560 meters to Chusonji’s main hall or 800 meters to Konjikido. In autumn, Japanese maples color the stretch from Dainichido toward the gold hall and the sutra repository.

Konjikido dates to 1124. Gold leaf covers its exterior and interior. Inside the sanctuary, the altar is decorated with mother-of-pearl from yakogai shells, ivory and gemstones. Amida sits at the center, flanked by Kannon and Seishi. The sanctuary also holds six Jizo figures, Jikokuten and Zochoten. The viewing ticket includes the Sankon-zou treasures, Kyozo and the old covering hall.

Ticket sales end ten minutes before closing. Allow time to walk uphill from the bus stop before buying your ticket.

The Run Run bus

The Run Run bus travels in one direction around Hiraizumi Station, Motsuji, the Heritage Center, Chusonji, Takadachi and Muryoko-in.

Adults pay less for two single rides than for a day pass. From the third ride, the pass costs less. On ordinary weekdays, walk 1.6 kilometers between Motsuji and Chusonji or take a taxi. The regular Ichinoseki–Hiraizumi bus has its own tickets and fares.

Returning to Hanamaki Onsen

Northbound local trains run from Hiraizumi to Hanamaki without a change.

Reserve the hotel shuttle ahead of travel. Hotel Koyokan has a free shuttle serving Hanamaki and Shin-Hanamaki stations for the rail journey to the temples.

You can walk from the resort hotels to Yumoto’s gardens and falls. The woodland loop around Kamabuchi takes about twenty minutes.

Takkoku no Iwaya

Bishamondo stands on supports against the cave and cliff at Takkoku no Iwaya. The present hall dates to 1961. It was rebuilt after a fire in 1946. West of Bishamondo, a Buddha is carved into a cliff about 33 meters high. The Buddha’s lower body collapsed in the 1896 earthquake. The late-Heian Himemachi Fudo figure is carved from one piece of katsura wood.

Takkoku no Iwaya is about six kilometers from Hiraizumi Station, beyond the Run Run bus route. A taxi takes about ten minutes. Allow roughly thirty minutes at the temple.