Country guide
Japan
Japan's sacred geography layers Shinto shrine landscapes, Buddhist temple networks, mountain ascetic practice, island pilgrimage, and urban devotional sites.
545 sacred sites across 64 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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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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Showing 433-480 of 545 sites in this country guide
Shōfuku-ji
Kasama, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan
Sashiro-san Shōfuku-ji is the 23rd Bandō station, a temple whose continuity has survived two complete physical destructions. The founding legend tells of a hunter on Mt....
Shōfuku-ji
Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan
Shōfuku-ji — popularly known as Iizumi Kannon — is the fifth station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho and one of the most active Shingon Kannon temples in Kanagawa....
Shōhō-ji (Iwama-dera)
Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, Japan
Shōhō-ji (Iwama-dera) is station 12 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Shingon-shū Daigoji-ha temple in Shiga dedicated to Senju Kannon....

Shōin Shrine
Setagaya City, Tokyo, Japan
Shōin Shrine (松陰神社) is an active Shinto sacred place in Tokyo. The record is grounded in an exact Google Place ID, nearby coordinates, institutional or reference evidence,...
Shōkoku-ji
Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan
Shōkoku-ji at Mount Myōhō — known for over a millennium as Hoshi-no-ya Kannon, the Valley of Stars Kannon — gathers folk-mystical phenomena around a Sacred Kannon honzon....

Shōkoku-ji (Kyoto)
Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
The Zen monastery behind Kyoto’s Golden and Silver Pavilions. Shōkoku-ji (Kyoto) remains an active Rinzai Zen Buddhism, Shōkoku-ji school temple....
Shōraku-ji (Senjū-in)
Bizen, Okayama Prefecture, Japan
Shōraku-ji, also known as Senju-in, sits on a low hill in Bizen and serves as Temple #3 of the Chūgoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage. The honzon is a hibutsu Eleven-Faced Kannon....
Shōrin-ji
Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, Japan
Shōrin-ji, fifteenth station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage, is a Rinzai Zen temple of the Kenchō-ji branch on the historic Banba-machi neighbourhood of central...

Shorinji Temple, Sakurai
Sakurai, Nara, Japan
At Shorinji, the principal Koyasu Enmei Jizo is associated with prayers for children and safe childbirth....

Shōryū-ji
Tosa, Kochi Prefecture, Japan
Shōryū-ji is the thirty-sixth stop on the Shikoku 88, set on the Yokonami Peninsula above Uranouchi Bay in Tosa City....
Shōsan-ji
Kamiyama, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan
Shōsan-ji stands at 706 metres on Mt. Shōsan-ji in Kamiyama, the second-highest temple of the Shikoku 88 and the first nansho or 'difficult place' on the route....
Shusshakaji
Zentsūji, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan
Temple 73 Shusshakaji sits at the foot of Mt Gahaishi in Zentsūji City, Kagawa. The legend here is intimate: a seven-year-old boy named Mao — later Kūkai — leapt from a...
Sōji-ji
Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, Japan
Sōji-ji is station 22 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Kōyasan Shingon-shū temple in Osaka dedicated to Senju Kannon....
Sonohyan-utaki
Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan
At the threshold of Shuri Castle, a coral limestone gate opens onto a sacred grove that cannot be entered....
Sōrin-ji
Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan
Sōrin-ji — Shōkō-zan Sōrin-ji — is a Tang-Chinese-founded temple (777 CE) re-established in 1670 as the bodhi-temple of the Fukuhara clan, chief retainers of the Mōri...

St. Ignatius Catholic Church
Kōjimachi, Tokyo, Japan
St. Ignatius Catholic Church (カトリック麹町 聖イグナチオ教会) is an active Roman Catholic Christianity sacred place in Tokyo....
St. Mary's Cathedral, Tokyo
Bunkyo City, Tokyo, Japan
St. Mary's Cathedral, Tokyo (東京カテドラル聖マリア大聖堂) is an active Roman Catholic Christianity sacred place in Tokyo....
Sugimoto-dera
Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan
Sugimoto-dera is the first station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho — Kamakura's oldest Buddhist temple, where three Eleven-Headed Kannon statues from successive Heian centuries...
Suisen-ji
Minano, Saitama Prefecture, Japan
Suisen-ji — Nittaku-san Suisen-ji — is the 34th and final station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage and the kechigan-jo (結願所, 'place where the vow is fulfilled') of...
Suishō-ji (Daishō-in)
Miyajima, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan
Daishō-in — full classical name Takizan Suiseiji Daishōin (also Suishō-ji), commonly called Miyajima Daishō-in — is the daihonzan (head temple) of the Omuro branch of...

Suitengu Shrine
Chuo City, Tokyo, Japan
Suitengu Shrine (水天宮) is an active Shinto sacred place in Tokyo. The record is grounded in an exact Google Place ID, nearby coordinates, institutional or reference...
Suma-dera
Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
Suma-dera, formally Joya-san Fukushō-ji, is the head temple (daihonzan) of its own Shingon sub-school — the Shingon-shū Sumadera-ha — and the principal site of Heike...

Sumiyoshi Jinja
Chuo City, Tokyo, Japan
Sumiyoshi Jinja (住吉神社(佃)) is an active Shinto sacred place in Tokyo. The record is grounded in an exact Google Place ID, nearby coordinates, institutional or reference...
Sumiyoshi-taisha
Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan
When Izanagi purified himself in the sea after his journey to the underworld, three deities emerged from the waters—the Sumiyoshi Sanjin, gods of the sea who have...
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....

Takaoshihime Shrine
Masaki, Ehime, Japan
Takaoshihime Shrine in Masaki honours a deity revered as an ancestral protector of midwives and wet nurses....

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....
Tamatsukuri Onsen
Matsue, Shimane, Japan
Tamatsukuri Onsen follows the Tamayu River in Matsue.
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....
Tateyama
Toyama, Japan
Tateyama is a mountain group in Japan’s Northern Alps and a historic centre of mountain worship....

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...
Showing 433-480 of 545 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 545 sites organized by region and tradition.
Which traditions are represented in Japan?
The most represented traditions include Buddhism, Shinto, Shingon Buddhism, Christianity, Shinto / Buddhism, Tendai Buddhism.
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.