Climb the stone steps and a glorious three storey stone tower comes into view. The vicinity is then carpeted in tens of thousands of gorinto "five ringed towers" and clusters of stone Buddhas. The stone tower itself (from which the temple also takes its name) was erected during the Nara period (710-794), and is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property due to being the oldest and largest construction of its kind. It is said to be a monument built by visitors from Korea out of passion and love for their distant homeland.