Pictures of Excursions Through the Famous Sites of the Capital

Pictures of Excursions Through the Famous Sites of the Capital (Rakuyo meisho kan'yu-e)

The gardens of Japanese Buddhist temples apeal to pilgrims seeking relidious enlightenment and redemption. Kiyomizudera, an ancient Buddhist temple founded in 798 and located in the hills east of Kyoto remains a favorite site for pilgrimages and excursions. Against the dep green of the evergreens covering the hills, the temple's gardens of cherry and maple trees attract crowds of visitors in the srping and autumn. This illustration is a detail from a long handscroll of famous places around Kyoto. Visitors today enjoy many of the same sites as in this eighteenth-century painting.