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Ennin's 827 foundation on 341m Mount Taihei — panoramic Kanto views and 4,000 cherry trees make it Tochigi's celebrated seasonal landmark

Bando 17th temple opened by Shodo's disciple and visited by Kukai — the cave Kannon and famous Izuru soba have welcomed pilgrims for 1,200 years

The guardian shrine of Tochigi's warehouse town, founded c. 800 — its elaborate float festival is one of the Kanto region's most celebrated

Kukai's legendary cave practice site — the stalactite Cave Kannon of the inner sanctuary radiates mystical energy at this remote Bando pilgrimage hall

The Sosha of Shimotsuke Province collectively enshrining all provincial deities — the first shrine newly-appointed governors were required to visit under the ritsuryo system

Said to have been founded by Kukai in 807 — the 17th Bando Kannon pilgrimage site atop Mt. Iwafune with sweeping views of the Kanto Plain

Ennin's mountain shrine and the nationally protected Kura-no-Machi storehousescapes along the Uzuma River — a heritage corridor of medieval and Edo commerce

A shrine enshrining Bishamonten invited from Kyoto's Mt. Kurama in the Edo period — merchants and warriors of the warehouse town prayed here for victory and fortune

Called the 'Koya of Kanto' — a mountain of exposed strange rocks whose cliff-face stone Buddhas have been revered as a realm of the dead since antiquity

17th site of the Bando Kannon pilgrimage — a natural stalactite Eleven-Faced Kannon in the cave and stunning autumn foliage in the valley