Yamadera 山寺
Mountain temple with views
High in the mountains northeast of Yamagata City, the atmospheric Yamadera, also known as Risshaku-ji and founded in 860, extends up a steep mountainside, offering superb views down onto the valley below. Get ready for 1000 steps, but it’s all worth it.
The base of the mountain is a 5min walk from the Yamadera train station, and there are dozens of shops and restaurants that cater to the temple's visitors.
Fans of the great poet and traveller Matsuo Bashō, who composed one of his most enduring haiku about the stillness and silence here in the late 1600s, will be pleased to find a statue of Bashō and a rock inscription of his famous poem in the lower area of the temple grounds.
There’s also a Yamadera Bashō Memorial Museum that focuses on his trip and famous work, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, near the station.