Mōtsūji Temple Coastal Rock Formation
The eleventh-century “Treatise on Garden Making” (Sakuteiki) gives specific instructions for creating what was considered to be the ideal garden. Special features, such as these rocks, were included as a motif of natural landscapes.
During the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, the large tateishi stone, originally standing vertical, had shifted. Restoration work revealed that the stone, while tall and heavy, is not embedded as deeply as originally thought.