Heisenji Hakusan Shrine

A walk through Heisenji Hakusan Shrine, hidden in the mountains of Katsuyama, Fukui Prefecture. Founded in 717 by the monk Taicho, this was the Echizen gateway to Mt. Hakusan, one of Japan's three sacred mountains. At its height it was a religious city of 48 shrines, 36 halls and 6,000 monks' lodgings, defended by 8,000 warrior monks. In 1574 it was burned to the ground in a peasant uprising, and most of those ruins still lie buried beneath the forest floor.