Dojo-ji & Surroundings, Wakayama

Legend has it that a girl named Kiyohime turned into a serpent and chased after her beloved, a monk known as Anchin. This story is reenacted during the temple’s annual festival as a 25-meter snake slithers up the steep stone steps and goes through the temple’s gates. In the finale, the snake finds its prey hiding under a giant bell and emits red smoke while coiling around it as the sad love story comes to a fatal end.