Ukishima Jusanjunoto (Thirteenth Story Pagoda)

I visited Ukishima Jusanjunoto, the Thirteenth Story Pagoda, on Tō-no-shima Island in Uji, and it felt like discovering a quiet landmark suspended between river, faith, and time. Standing on the small island in the Uji River, the pagoda rises with an elegant stillness that contrasts beautifully with the current around it. The scene has a gentle, almost poetic atmosphere, especially with the river moving past the stone tower and the historic streets of Uji nearby.

Tō-no-shima, together with nearby Tachibanajima, forms part of the middle islands in the Uji River. The island and pagoda are tied to the long history of Uji as a river town shaped by water, bridges, and repeated floods, which made the site both vulnerable and memorable. The pagoda itself was originally built in the late Kamakura period by the monk Eison of Saidai-ji Temple, reportedly as a memorial prayer for fish, and it later fell into the river during a major flood in 1756 before being rediscovered and rebuilt in the Meiji era.

What makes the place especially moving is how much history is layered into such a small area. Uji is famous not only for its old river crossings and cultural sites, but also for the way its landscape preserved traces of devotion, trade, and local life over centuries. The pagoda on Tō-no-shima has become a symbol of that deep continuity: a sacred structure that survived disaster, vanished for a time, and returned to stand once again as part of the river’s story.