Rokuharamitsuji Temple

This guide to Rokuharamitsuji Temple in Kyoto opens with the carved statue of Kuya, a wandering tenth-century monk shown mid-chant with six tiny golden buddhas strung from his mouth, each standing for a syllable of his prayer. It follows Kuya through the 951 plague in Kyoto, when he dragged a Kannon statue through the streets giving tea to the dying, and built his hall at a crossroads believed to link this world with the next. Two centuries later that plague-hall became headquarters for the Taira warrior clan, whose leader Taira no Kiyomori shaved his head and ruled Japan from behind these walls as a monk. Listen for the crossroads outside, once believed to carry Kyoto's dead toward the hillside beyond.