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 289-336 of 345 sites in this country guide
Shōhō-ji (Iwama-dera) (正法寺)
Otsu, Otsu, Shiga, 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....
Shōkoku-ji (星谷寺)
Zama, 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....
Shōraku-ji (Senjū-in)
Bizen, 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 (少林寺)
Chichibu, 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...
Shōryū-ji (青竜寺)
Tosa, Tosa, Kōchi, 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 (焼山寺)
Kamiyama, Kamiyama, Tokushima, 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 (出釈迦寺)
Zentsūji, Zentsūji, Kagawa, 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 (総持寺)
Ibaraki, Ibaraki, Osaka, 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 (宗隣寺)
Ube, 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...
Sugimoto-dera (杉本寺)
Kamakura, 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 (水潜寺)
Minano, 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, 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...
Suma-dera
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-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...
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
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
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
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 (太龍寺)
Anan, Anan, Tokushima, 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
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...
Taisan-ji (太山寺)
Matsuyama, Matsuyama, Ehime, Japan
Temple 52 of the Shikoku henro stands northwest of Matsuyama in cypress and bamboo forest....
Taisan-ji (泰山寺)
Imabari, Imabari, Ehime, 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...
Taiyū-ji
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....
Tanema-ji (種間寺)
Haruno, Haruno, Kōchi, Japan
The thirty-fourth temple of the Shikoku 88 sits among rice paddies in Haruno, Kōchi....
Tanjō-ji (Okayama)
Kumenan, Japan
Tanjō-ji marks the literal birthplace of Hōnen Shōnin (1133–1212), founder of Jōdo-shū Pure Land Buddhism....
Tatsue-ji (立江寺)
Komatsushima, Komatsushima, Tokushima, 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
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 (天皇寺)
Sakaide, Sakaide, Kagawa, 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....
Tenryu-ji Temple
Kyoto, Kyoto, 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...
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...
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
Japan
Tōkō-in — known by the affectionate name Hagi-no-tera, Bush Clover Temple — is a Sōtō Zen temple in suburban Toyonaka, Osaka....
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....
Tosa Kokubun-ji (土佐国分寺)
Nankoku, Nankoku, Kōchi, Japan
Tosa Kokubun-ji holds dual identity: imperial provincial temple of ancient Tosa Province and Temple 29 of the Shikoku Pilgrimage....
Tōshun-ji (洞春寺)
Yamaguchi, 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....
Unpen-ji (雲辺寺)
Miyoshi, Miyoshi, Tokushima, 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....
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...
Washinoki Stone Circle
Mori, Hokkaidō, Japan
Beneath a highway tunnel in southwestern Hokkaido lies Japan's largest stone circle, a 4,000-year-old Jomon burial site that was nearly destroyed by modern construction....
Yakuō-ji (薬王寺)
Minami, Minami, Tokushima, Japan
Yakuō-ji, Temple 23 of the Shikoku 88, is the canonical yakuyoke-no-tera — the misfortune-warding temple — of the pilgrimage....
Yakuri-ji (八栗寺)
Takamatsu, Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan
Yakuri-ji clings to the western slope of Mt. Goken at 375 metres, the eighty-fifth temple of the Shikoku circuit....
Yakuriji Temple, Yakuri
Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan
Temple 85 on the Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage, Yakuriji sits high on Mount Goken, the Mountain of Five Swords, whose dramatic peaks thrust skyward like divine blades....
Yakushima Island
Yakushima, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan
Yakushima rises from the sea like a world apart. This small island off the southern tip of Kyushu receives so much rain that locals say it rains 35 days a month, and from...
Yasaka-ji (八坂寺)
Matsuyama, Matsuyama, Ehime, Japan
Yasaka-ji is the forty-seventh temple of the Shikoku pilgrimage and one of its most layered....
Yashima-ji (屋島寺)
Takamatsu, Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan
Yashima-ji crowns the mesa of Yashima, 293 metres above the Seto Inland Sea, and is the eighty-fourth temple of the Shikoku circuit....
Showing 289-336 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.