Kiyomizu Magaibutsu

"This historic site, located a 10-minute drive from the Kawanabe Interchange on the Ibusuki Skyline, is the largest of the many Buddhism-related historic sites found in the Kawanabe area. The site consists of some 200 Sanskrit characters, gorinto five tier stone pagodas, hokyoin memorial pagodas, and Buddhist images carved across a 20-meter-tall, 400-meter-wide cliff along the Manose River. The site's large ""dai"" gorinto, believed to have been created in the late Heian period, is 12 meters tall, making it the largest in Japan. The site's Sanskrit characters inscribed in circular ""moons,"" which date to the mid-Kamakura period, are said to be some of the best of their kind in the country not only in terms of their size but also the beauty of the characters."