The Ishikawa prefectural tourism association gives the peak here as early to late November. Starting in the first ten days is early for this prefecture, and the altitude explains it: the mornings cool off before they do on the coast.

Natadera is said to date from 717, which puts more than thirteen centuries behind the site. The centre of it is Kigan Yusenkyo, a national place of scenic beauty — a face of eroded rock stacked into shelves and hollows, with trees rooted in the gaps. That is what makes the autumn here different from a temple garden. The colour does not form a canopy; it scatters across grey stone as points of red and yellow, and the shape of the view is set by the rock rather than by the planting.

The buildings sit among that stone. The main hall, the three-storey pagoda, the goma hall and the bell tower are all designated important cultural properties, and they are placed to be seen from below and from the side rather than head-on.

The gates open at half past eight. The first hour is the quiet one, and it is also when the observation point above the gorge is worth the climb, because the light is still coming in low across the rock. The temple was founded on reverence for Mount Hakusan, and the layout still bends toward the mountain rather than away from it.