Page 233 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Japan

Must See
EXPERIENCE MORE

HIDDEN GEM
Temple
Treasures 8 9 "\=
Although many of Asuka Plain Koka Ninja Village
Horyu-ji’s artifacts are 飛鳥地方 甲賀の里忍術村
housed in the Tokyo ! D5 ⌂ Nara Prefecture ! D5 ⌂ 394 Kokacho Oki,
National Museum £ Asuka n (0744) 54-3624 Koka, Shiga Prefecture
(p128), the Gallery of £ Koka, then free shuttle
Temple Treasures still The Asuka Plain is scattered
houses Kudara Kannon, with excavation sites from the from north entrance
a slender Buddha. proto-capital Asukakyo, which # 10am–4pm daily
∑ koka.ninpou.jp
flourished in the 5th to 7th
centuries. The best way to Shiga prefecture once hosted
explore the various tombs one of Japan’s most secretive
and temples is by bicycle. sects – the ninja (p235). Today,
Level 5: Sky One of the best-known visitors can learn the arts of
sites, Takamatsuzuka Kofun espionage, sabotage, and
contains vivid murals of stars infiltration at this ninja village.
and mythological animals. In the grounds are a museum
Notable images elsewhere dedicated to ninja techniques,
include Sakabune Ishi, a a house full of traps and
concentric stone that may secret panels, and a shuriken
have been used to make sake; throwing-star dojo, as well as
Level 4: Wind
Kame and Saru Ishi, turtle and the Mizugomo Water Spider
monkey-shaped statues; and Pond, where you can attempt
Nimen Seki, a stone with to get across the water using
faces carved on each side. two floating rings and a rope.
Asuka-dera was Japan’s Visitors can also experience
first Buddhist temple. The ninja training for themselves
Level 3: Fire Asuka-Daibutsu statues and can even dress up to
are influenced by various better understand the ways
East Asian cultures. of these stealthy assassins.

Level 2: Water

Level 1: Earth

Four sculpted scenes
from the life of the
Buddha face north,
south, east, and west.
Horyu-ji’s historic five- Delicate paintings on the
story pagoda, with its ceiling of Asuka-dera
symbolic floors temple, in Asuka village
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