In front of a main hall, a deep-red Japanese umbrella made a striking contrast with pink cherry blossoms in full bloom (Photo: Masayoshi Hirose)

Blossom Colored Kokawadera Temple

Beautiful old Kansai temple wearing cherry blossom

Takako Sakamoto   - 1 min read

On April 10th four years ago, I visited Kokawadera Temple in Wakayama prefecture to enjoy cherry blossoms.

Kokawadera is the third temple of 33 Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage temples (Kansai region). It has spacious 115,850㎡ grounds. While walking along a 200-meter-long stone paved pathway to the temple, I sighed over the brilliant cherry blossoms that decorated it. Especially, the view of the magnificent roof of the main hall, which is the largest among the 33 Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage temples, with beautiful cherry blossoms in the foreground, left me speechless. After praying at the temple, I sat on a long bench with a red Japanese umbrella (in the first photo), looked up, put my hands together and prayed again toward Kokawadera Temple which was radiant with cherry blossom colors!

Glorious Spring at Kokawadera Temple 1. Cherry Trees at Kokawadera Temple 2. Blossom Colored Kokawadera Temple

Takako Sakamoto

Takako Sakamoto @takako.sakamoto

I was born in and grew up in Tokushima prefecture, and have lived in many places since then: Nishinomiya, Kyoto, Nara, Mie, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Fukuoka and Fukui. I am currently living in Yokohama City. All the places I lived, all the places I visited, I have loved dearly. The histor...