Country guide
Japan
Japan's sacred geography layers Shinto shrine landscapes, Buddhist temple networks, mountain ascetic practice, island pilgrimage, and urban devotional sites.
508 sacred sites across 43 regions. Use the tradition links to narrow in.
Sacred journeys
Pilgrimages in Japan
Follow routes that connect sacred places across Japan. Mapped-place counts reflect the current atlas. Showing 6 of 10 mapped routes.
Buddhism · Shikoku
Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage
四国八十八ヶ所霊場
Eighty-eight temples around an island, a circuit walked beside Kūkai across thirteen centuries.
88 mapped places in Japan · 88-station pilgrimage
Buddhism · Kansai
New Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage
新西国三十三所
A modern Kansai Kannon circuit organized in 1932 to make the old route walkable for working pilgrims.
38 mapped places in Japan · 33 numbered stations + auxiliary places
Buddhism · Kansai
Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage
西国三十三所
The oldest Kannon circuit in Japan — thirty-three temples across western Honshu, walked since the eighth century.
36 mapped places in Japan · 33 numbered stations + auxiliary places
Buddhism · Kantō
Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage
秩父三十四観音霊場
Thirty-four temples in a single Saitama valley — the third leg that makes the Hyakkasho complete.
34 mapped places in Japan · 34-station pilgrimage
Buddhism · Kantō
Bandō Sanjūsankasho Pilgrimage
坂東三十三観音霊場
Thirty-three temples to Kannon across the eastern plain, a circuit of compassion shaped by twelfth-century warriors and walked still.
33 mapped places in Japan · 33-station pilgrimage
Buddhism · Chūgoku
Chūgoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage
中国三十三観音霊場
A modern Kannon circuit across western Honshu, established in 1981 to honor temples that lay outside the great medieval routes.
29 mapped places in Japan · 33-station pilgrimage
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Explore Japan region by region
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Traditions
Physical forms
Dates connected to Japan
Upcoming festivals, feast days, and pilgrimages tied to Japan. Add any to your calendar, or see the full observance calendar.
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Kamiari-sai (Festival of the Gods)
Nov 29 – Sun, Dec 6, 2026Festival
Izumo Taisha (Izumo Grand Shrine)
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Related Japan guides
Showing 433-480 of 508 sites in this country guide
Susanō Shrine
Arakawa City, Tokyo, Japan
Susanō Shrine (素盞雄神社) is an active Shinto sacred place in Tokyo. The record is grounded in an exact Google Place ID, nearby coordinates, institutional or reference...
Suwa-taisha
Suwa, Nagano Prefecture, Japan
Suwa-taisha predates shrine architecture itself. Four shrines encircle Lake Suwa in Nagano Prefecture, but their sacred objects are not artifacts—they are Mount Moriya and...
Tabata Stone Circle
Machida, Tokyo, Japan
Five minutes from a Tokyo train station, a ring of stones marks where Jomon peoples gathered three thousand years ago....
Tachibana-dera
Nara Prefecture, Japan
Tachibana-dera is a Tendai temple set in the Asuka rice fields of Nara Prefecture, traditionally identified as the birthplace of Prince Shōtoku....
Tachiki-Kannon An’yō-ji
Shiga Prefecture, Japan
Tachiki Kannon An'yō-ji stands above the Seta River on a cliff that pilgrims reach by climbing roughly 800 stone steps....
Taima-dera
Nara Prefecture, Japan
Taima-dera is a major dual-administered temple at the foot of Mount Nijō — held jointly by Shingon (Buzan branch) and Jōdo-shū....
Tairyū-ji
Anan, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan
Tairyū-ji, Temple 21 of the Shikoku 88, is one of the few sites Kūkai names in his own writings as the place of his decisive ascetic practice....
Taisan-ji
Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, Japan
Temple 52 of the Shikoku henro stands northwest of Matsuyama in cypress and bamboo forest....
Taisan-ji
Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, Japan
Temple 56 of the Shikoku henro is one of the few personally founded by Kūkai. In 815 he led local villagers in flood-control work along the Sosha River, performed the...
Taisan-ji
Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
Sanshinzan Taisan-ji in Kobe's Nishi Ward holds a 1293 wooden main hall registered as a National Treasure of Japan — one of only a few such structures in the entire Hyōgo...
Taisō-ji
Shinjuku City, Tokyo, Japan
Taisō-ji (霞関山 本覚院 太宗寺) is an active Japanese Buddhism sacred place in Tokyo. The record is grounded in an exact Google Place ID, nearby coordinates, institutional or...
Taiyū-ji
Osaka Prefecture, Japan
Founded by Kūkai in the early 9th century at the heart of what is now Osaka's Umeda entertainment district, Taiyū-ji is a Kōyasan Shingon temple whose principal Senju...
Takachiho Gorge
Takachiho, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan
In this volcanic gorge where sheer basalt cliffs rise 80 meters above an emerald river, Japan's creation mythology takes physical form....
Takahata Fudoson
Hino, Tokyo, Japan
Takahata Fudoson (高幡山明王院金剛寺(高幡不動尊)) is an active Shingon Buddhism sacred place in Tokyo....
Takijiri-oji
Tanabe, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan
Takijiri-oji (滝尻王子) is the traditional entrance to the Kumano mountains and one of the five major oji on the Nakahechi section of the Kumano Kodo....
Tanema-ji
Haruno, Kochi Prefecture, Japan
The thirty-fourth temple of the Shikoku 88 sits among rice paddies in Haruno, Kōchi....
Tanjō-ji (Okayama)
Kumenan, Okayama Prefecture, Japan
Tanjō-ji marks the literal birthplace of Hōnen Shōnin (1133–1212), founder of Jōdo-shū Pure Land Buddhism....
Tatsue-ji
Komatsushima, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan
Tatsue-ji is the Sōsekisho, the chief barrier temple of the Shikoku 88. Folk belief holds that pilgrims of unresolved sin or insincere intent cannot pass beyond this gate....
Tenjōji
Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
Mayasan Tenjō-ji sits near the summit of Mt. Maya, the Kobe-area mountain named for Mayadevi (Lady Maya, mother of the Buddha) — the temple's distinctive secondary focus...
Tennō-ji
Sakaide, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan
Temple 79 Tennō-ji in Sakaide is named for the body of an emperor — Sutoku, exiled after the Hōgen Disturbance of 1156 and dead in Sanuki in 1164....
Tennōji Temple
Taito City, Tokyo, Japan
Tennōji Temple (天王寺) is an active Nichiren Buddhism sacred place in Tokyo. The record is grounded in an exact Google Place ID, nearby coordinates, institutional or...
Tenryu-ji Temple
Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
At the foot of the Arashiyama mountains in western Kyoto, Tenryu-ji preserves a garden designed by Zen master Musō Soseki for a single purpose: meditation....
Todaiji
Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan
In 752 CE, Emperor Shōmu consecrated a bronze Buddha of unprecedented scale—15 meters tall, cast from nearly all the copper in Japan—to bring peace to a nation wracked by...
Todoroki Fudōson Temple
Setagaya City, Tokyo, Japan
Todoroki Fudōson Temple (等々力不動尊) is an active Japanese Buddhism sacred place in Tokyo....
Tōfuku-ji
Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
A Zen training temple stretched across a maple-filled ravine. Tōfuku-ji remains an active Rinzai Zen Buddhism, Tōfuku-ji school temple....
Togakushi Shrine
Nagano, Nagano Prefecture, Japan
Mount Togakushi is literally the 'Hidden Door'—the cave entrance that the god Tajikarao threw across the heavens after pulling the sun goddess Amaterasu from her hiding...
Togo Shrine
Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
Togo Shrine (東郷神社) is an active Shinto sacred place in Tokyo. The record is grounded in an exact Google Place ID, nearby coordinates, institutional or reference evidence,...
Togoshi Hachiman Shrine
品川区 Shinagawa City, Tokyo, Japan
Togoshi Hachiman Shrine (戸越八幡神社) is an active Shinto sacred place in Tokyo. The record is grounded in an exact Google Place ID, nearby coordinates, institutional or...
Toji
Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
For over 1,200 years, Tō-ji has been the beating heart of Shingon Buddhism—the esoteric tradition that Kūkai brought from China in the 9th century....
Tokoin Hagino-tera
Osaka Prefecture, Japan
Tōkō-in — known by the affectionate name Hagi-no-tera, Bush Clover Temple — is a Sōtō Zen temple in suburban Toyonaka, Osaka....
Tokyo Camii & Diyanet Turkish Culture Center
Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo Camii & Diyanet Turkish Culture Center (東京ジャーミイ･ディヤーナト トルコ文化センター) is an active Sunni Islam sacred place in Tokyo....
Tokyo Daijingu
Chiyoda City, Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo Daijingu (東京大神宮) is an active Shinto sacred place in Tokyo. The record is grounded in an exact Google Place ID, nearby coordinates, institutional or reference...
Tokyo Japan Temple
Minato City, Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo Japan Temple (末日聖徒イエス・キリスト教会 日本東京神殿) is an active The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sacred place in Tokyo....
Tomb of Christ, Shingo, Japan
Shingo, Aomori Prefecture, Japan
In the mountain village of Shingo, two earthen mounds beneath simple wooden crosses mark what local legend calls the graves of Jesus Christ and his brother....
Tomioka Hachiman Shrine
Koto City, Tokyo, Japan
Tomioka Hachiman Shrine (富岡八幡宮) is an active Shinto sacred place in Tokyo. The record is grounded in an exact Google Place ID, nearby coordinates, institutional or...
Torigoe Shrine
Taito City, Tokyo, Japan
Torigoe Shrine (鳥越神社) is an active Shinto sacred place in Tokyo. The record is grounded in an exact Google Place ID, nearby coordinates, institutional or reference...
Tosa Kokubun-ji
Nankoku, Kochi Prefecture, Japan
Tosa Kokubun-ji holds dual identity: imperial provincial temple of ancient Tosa Province and Temple 29 of the Shikoku Pilgrimage....
Toshodai-ji
Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan
Toshodai-ji, stands in Nara. At Toshodai-ji, Ritsu Buddhism guides custody. Prayer at Toshodai-ji addresses Rushana Buddha, Yakushi Nyorai, Thousand-Armed Kannon, and...
Tōshun-ji
Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan
Tōshun-ji — Shōshū-zan Tōshun-ji — was founded in 1572 by Mōri Terumoto as the bodhi-temple of his grandfather, the warlord Mōri Motonari....
Toyokawa Inari Betsuin
Minato City, Tokyo, Japan
Toyokawa Inari Betsuin (豊川稲荷東京別院) is an active Soto Buddhism sacred place in Tokyo....
Tsugizakura-oji
Tanabe, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan
Tsugizakura-oji (継桜王子) is an oji grove known for the Nonaka Ipposugi cedars and its association with Minakata Kumagusu's resistance to shrine consolidation on the...
Tsukiji Hongwan-ji Temple
Chuo City, Tokyo, Japan
Tsukiji Hongwan-ji Temple (浄土真宗本願寺派 築地本願寺) is an active Jodo Shinshu Buddhism sacred place in Tokyo....
Tsurugaoka Hachimangu
Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan
Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, stands in Kamakura. At Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, Shinto guides custody....
Ueno Toshogu Shrine
Taito City, Tokyo, Japan
Ueno Toshogu Shrine (上野東照宮) is an active Shinto sacred place in Tokyo. The record is grounded in an exact Google Place ID, nearby coordinates, institutional or reference...
Ujigami-jinja Shrine
Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
Ancient shrine architecture beside a living spring above Uji. Ujigami-jinja Shrine remains an active Shinto shrine....
Unpen-ji
Miyoshi, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan
Unpen-ji sits at 927 metres on the ridge between Tokushima and Kagawa, the highest temple of the Shikoku 88 and the gateway to the Nirvana stage of the pilgrimage....
Urakami Cathedral
Nagasaki, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan
Urakami Cathedral, stands in Nagasaki. At Urakami Cathedral, Roman Catholicism guides custody....
Usa Jingu
Usa, Oita Prefecture, Japan
In 749 CE, when Emperor Shōmu consecrated the Great Buddha at Tōdai-ji, a deity traveled from Kyushu to Nara for the ceremony—the first time a Shinto god participated in...
Showing 433-480 of 508 sites
Key questions
Japan sacred-site questions
What sacred sites can I explore in Japan?
Pilgrim Map lists sacred places in Japan across living worship sites, heritage landmarks, pilgrimage destinations, and culturally significant landscapes. The current guide lists 508 sites organized by region and tradition.
Which traditions are represented in Japan?
The most represented traditions include Buddhism, Shinto, Shingon Buddhism, Christianity, Tendai Buddhism, Kumano Shinto, Buddhism, and Shugendō.
How should I plan a sacred-site visit in Japan?
Start with regional clusters, compare nearby places on the map, then open individual site pages for coordinates, etiquette, and sacred context where available.
Can I view Japan sacred sites on a map?
Yes. Switch to map view to compare geographic clusters, then open individual site pages for coordinates, visiting context, and related places.