Country guide
Japan
Japan's sacred geography layers Shinto shrine landscapes, Buddhist temple networks, mountain ascetic practice, island pilgrimage, and urban devotional sites.
345 sacred sites across 106 regions. Use the tradition and site-type filters to narrow in.
Atlas summary
Japan sacred sites overview
Japan sacred sites include major Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples, Kannon pilgrimage circuits, sacred mountains, temple towns, and quiet local places shaped by seasonal ritual.
Use the page to compare regional clusters and traditions, then move into route-linked sites and individual pages for coordinates, context, and nearby sacred stops.
| Coverage | 345 sacred sites across 106 regions. |
|---|---|
| Regional clusters | |
| Traditions | |
| Site types | |
| UNESCO heritage | 5 UNESCO-tagged sites in this country guide. |
Dates connected to Japan
Upcoming festivals, feast days, and pilgrimages tied to Japan. Add any to your calendar, or see the full observance calendar.
Showing 241-288 of 345 sites in this country guide
Ongaku-ji (音楽寺)
Chichibu, Japan
Ongaku-ji is the twenty-third station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage — a Rinzai Zen temple of the Nanzen-ji branch whose name means 'music.' Founded by tradition...
Onzan-ji (恩山寺)
Komatsushima, Komatsushima, Tokushima, Japan
Onzan-ji, Temple 18 of the Shikoku 88, is the 'Temple of Gratitude.' It stands at the place where Kūkai's mother, Tamayori Gozen, became one of the first women admitted to...
Oshoro stone circle, Otaru, Hokkaido
Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan
On Hokkaido's coast near Otaru, the Oshoro Stone Circle stands as testimony to the spiritual lives of the Jomon people 3,500 years ago....
Osore-zan Boto-ji
Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture, Japan
Osorezan, the mountain of fear, rises as one of Japan's three most sacred mountains....
Ōya-ji (大谷寺)
Utsunomiya, Japan
Ōya-ji, station 19 of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho, sits inside a natural rock-shelter overhang of Ōya tuff in Utsunomiya....
Ōyu Stone Circles
Kazuno, Akita Prefecture, Japan
On a plateau above the Oyu River in northern Japan, two stone circles have watched the summer solstice sun set along the same axis for 4,000 years....
Rakuhō-ji (楽法寺)
Sakuragawa, Japan
Rakuhō-ji is the 24th Bandō station, popularly known as Amabiki Kannon — the Rain-Drawing Kannon....
Rendai-ji
Kurashiki, Japan
Rendai-ji crowns Mt. Yuga (270 m) above Kurashiki and serves as Chūgoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage station #6....
Rinnō-ji
Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan
Rinnoji Temple stands as the Buddhist heart of Nikko's sacred landscape, founded in 766 CE by Shodo Shonin....
Rokuharamitsu-ji (六波羅蜜寺)
Higashiyama-ku, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, Japan
Rokuharamitsu-ji is station 17 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Shingon Buddhism, Kūya nembutsu temple in Kyoto dedicated to Jūichimen Kannon....
Ruri-ji
Japan
Funakoshi-san Nankōbō Ruri-ji is the FINAL station of the New Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage....
Ryoan-ji
Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
Ryoan-ji in Kyoto holds the world's most celebrated Zen rock garden. Fifteen stones rest on raked white gravel, arranged so that from any viewing point, one remains hidden....
Ryōzen-ji (霊山寺)
Naruto, Naruto, Tokushima, Japan
Ryōzen-ji is Temple 1 of the Shikoku 88-temple pilgrimage in Naruto, Tokushima. Pilgrims begin their 1,200-kilometer circuit here, buying white robes, conical hats, and...
Ryūseki-ji (龍石寺)
Chichibu, Japan
Ryūseki-ji is the nineteenth station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage, a Sōtō Zen temple whose hall sits not on a foundation but on a single mass of conglomerate...
Ryūshō-in
Narita, Japan
Ryūshō-in — known locally as Namegawa Kannon — is the 28th station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho pilgrimage, a Tendai temple set among rice fields outside Narita....
Ryuukou-ji (竜光寺)
Uwajima, Uwajima, Ehime, Japan
Ryūkō-ji is the forty-first temple of the Shikoku pilgrimage and one of its most visible cases of shinbutsu-shūgō, the older Japanese practice of holding kami and Buddha...
Ryūzō-ji (龍蔵寺)
Yamaguchi, Japan
Ryūzō-ji — Takitōzan Ryūzō-ji — is regarded as the oldest temple in Yamaguchi City, traditionally founded in 698 by En no Gyōja and 741 by Gyōki....
Saidai-ji (Okayama)
Okayama, Japan
Saidai-ji Kannon-in opens the Chūgoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage in eastern Okayama. Founded in the eighth century around a Senju Kannon image said to have chosen this spot by...
Saigoku-ji (Sōji-in)
Onomichi, Japan
Saigoku-ji — full name Maniyama Sōji-in Saigoku-ji — sits on Mt. Atago above Onomichi's old port, ascended by 108 stone steps....
Saihoin
Japan
Saihōin is a small Pure Land nunnery in Taishi-chō, founded in 622 CE by three of Prince Shōtoku's nurse-attendants who shaved their heads after his death and built the...
Saikō-ji (西光寺)
Chichibu, Japan
Saikō-ji, sixteenth station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage, is a Shingon Buzan-ha temple whose Senju (Thousand-Armed) Kannon is traditionally attributed to the Nara...
Saimyō-ji
Mashiko, Japan
Saimyō-ji, station 20 of the Bandō Kannon pilgrimage, sits on the wooded slopes of Mt. Tokkō east of Mashiko....
Sairin-ji (西林寺)
Matsuyama, Matsuyama, Ehime, Japan
Sairin-ji is the forty-eighth temple of the Shikoku pilgrimage and the Sekisho of Iyo, the spiritual checkpoint of the Iyo (Ehime) leg of the four-province circuit....
Saizen-ji (西善寺)
Yokoze, Japan
Saizen-ji is the eighth station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage in Yokoze, Saitama. The Rinzai Zen temple of the Nanzen-ji school sits at the northern foot of Mt....
Sakafuneishi Site
Asuka, Nara Prefecture, Japan
In the hills of Asuka, Japan's ancient capital, water once flowed through a turtle-shaped stone basin in ceremonies conducted for Empress Saimei nearly fourteen centuries...
Sakami-ji
Japan
Izumi-shōzan Sagami-ji in Kasai, Hyōgo, was founded by imperial command in 745 after the priest Gyōki received an oracle from Sagami Myōjin, a local kami in the Sumiyoshi...
Sanbutsu-ji
Misasa, Japan
Sanbutsu-ji, the 31st station of the Chūgoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage, sits on Mt. Mitoku in Misasa, Tottori....
Sankaku-ji (三角寺)
Shikokuchūō, Shikokuchūō, Ehime, Japan
Sankaku-ji sits at roughly 450 metres above the industrial coast of Shikokuchūō, the sixty-fifth temple of the Shikoku 88 and the last of twenty-six temples in Ehime....
Sannai-Maruyama Site
Aomori, Aomori Prefecture, Japan
For seventeen centuries, the Jomon people lived at Sannai-Maruyama, cultivating chestnuts, trading jade across hundreds of kilometers, and building structures that still...
Sanuki Kokubun-ji (讃岐国分寺)
Takamatsu, Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan
Temple 80 Sanuki Kokubun-ji in Takamatsu is the working successor to one of the eighth-century kokubunji — the provincial protection-temples ordered by Emperor Shōmu in...
Satake-ji
Hitachiōta, Japan
Satake-ji is the 22nd Bandō station and the spiritual ward of the medieval Satake clan....
Sefuku-ji (施福寺)
Izumi, Izumi, Osaka, Japan
Sefuku-ji is station 4 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Tendai Buddhism, Katsuragi Shugendō / Mountain ascetic tradition temple in Osaka dedicated to Senju Kannon....
Seigan-ji
Japan
Seigan-ji is the head temple (sōhonzan) of the Jōdo Seizan Fukakusa branch, founded in Nara in 667 CE and relocated in 1591 to Kyoto's Shinkyōgoku entertainment district....
Seiganto-ji (青岸渡寺)
Nachikatsuura, Nachikatsuura, Wakayama, Japan
Seiganto-ji stands at the head of the Saigoku 33-temple pilgrimage and at the foot of Nachi Falls, Japan's tallest single-drop cascade....
Seigantoji (Seiganto Temple)
Nachikatsuura, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan
High on Mt. Nachi in Wakayama Prefecture, the three-story vermillion pagoda of Seigantoji frames one of the most iconic views in Japan: the 133-meter Nachi Falls cascading...
Sekkei-ji (雪蹊寺)
Kōchi, Kōchi, Kōchi, Japan
Sekkei-ji is the thirty-third stop on the Shikoku 88, founded by Kūkai in the early ninth century and later converted to Rinzai Zen as the bodaiji of the Chōsokabe warlord...
Senkō-ji
Onomichi, Japan
Senkō-ji — full name Daihōzan Gongen-in Senkō-ji — clings to the mid-slope of Mt. Senkō above Onomichi harbor....
Sensō-ji (浅草寺)
Asakusa, Japan
Sensō-ji, the Asakusa Kannon, is the thirteenth station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho pilgrimage and Tokyo's oldest temple....
Senyū-ji (仙遊寺)
Imabari, Imabari, Ehime, Japan
Senyū-ji crowns Mt. Sakurei south of Imabari, the 58th temple of the Shikoku 88....
Shido-ji (志度寺)
Sanuki, Sanuki, Kagawa, Japan
Shido-ji stands beside Shido Bay on the Sanuki coast as the eighty-sixth temple of the Shikoku circuit....
Shimabu-ji (四萬部寺)
Chichibu, Japan
Shimabu-ji is the first temple of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage in Saitama, Japan....
Shimpuku-ji (真福寺)
Chichibu, Japan
Shinpuku-ji is the second station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage and the temple whose late-Muromachi addition raised the Chichibu count to 34....
Shinshō-ji (津照寺)
Muroto, Muroto, Kōchi, Japan
Shinshō-ji rises directly above the working harbour of Murotsu, reached by a steep stone staircase that climbs through a Niōmon gate set unusually mid-flight....
Shiromine-ji (白峯寺)
Sakaide, Sakaide, Kagawa, Japan
Shiromine-ji sits at 280 metres on a forested ridge of the Goshikidai plateau in Kagawa, the eighty-first temple of the Shikoku circuit....
Shitennō-ji
Japan
Shitennō-ji stands at the institutional headwaters of Japanese Buddhism. Founded in 593 CE by Prince Shōtoku after his clan's victory secured Buddhism a place in the new...
Shōbō-ji (正法寺)
Higashimatsuyama, Japan
Shōbō-ji on Mount Iwadono, known for thirteen centuries as Iwadono Kannon, began as a single rock-cave hermitage where the shugendō ascetic Itsumi enshrined a Senju Kannon...
Shōfuku-ji (勝福寺)
Odawara, 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....
Shōfuku-ji (正福寺)
Kasama, 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....
Showing 241-288 of 345 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 345 sites organized by region, tradition, and site type.
- Which traditions are represented in Japan?
- The most represented traditions include Buddhism, Shinto, Jomon, Zoku-Jomon, Nature Worship, Rinzai Zen 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.