Kamiyodo Hakuho no Oka Exhibition Hall and Historic Sites

Built to stand over a National Historic Site in Yonago, this museum presents the story of Kamiyodo Haiji Temple, one of Japan's early Buddhist temples that burned around the year 1000 and was never rebuilt. Excavations from 1991 to 1993 uncovered foundation stones, charred plaster fragments with sophisticated murals, and thousands of pieces of devotional statues. Those fragments allowed researchers to reconstruct full-scale versions of the original figures, which are now the focus of the exhibition. The unusual three-pagoda layout and the artistry of the remains place this lost temple in the same era as Horyuji and Yakushiji in Nara.