Mitaki Temple

This guide to Mitaki Temple in Hiroshima follows three waterfalls on one forested mountainside, each named for a different mood: Komaga Falls kicking white water like a spooked horse, Bonin Falls humming like a temple bell, and Yuumei Falls marking the line between the living and the dead. It traces the temple back to the monk Kukai, credited with founding it in 809 where the three streams meet, and to the Kannon devotion built around that point. You'll also hear why water gathered from these same falls is still carried into the city each August, for a ceremony tied to what the dying begged for and could not get.