Japan Guide
Northern Honshū
Hiraizumi
Nowadays it's hard to imagine HIRAIZUMI as the resplendent capital of the Fujiwara clan, who chose this spot on the banks of the Kitakami-gawa for their "paradise on earth". At first sight it's a rather dozy little town on a busy main road, but the low western hills conceal one of the most important sights in northern Honshū, the gilded Konjiki-dō, which has somehow survived war, fire and natural decay for nearly nine hundred years. You can easily cover this and the nearby gardens of Mōtsū-ji in a day, either staying in Hiraizumi itself or Ichinoseki.