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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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 337-384 of 508 sites in this country guide
Ōkubo-ji
Sanuki, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan
Ōkubo-ji is the eighty-eighth and final temple of the Shikoku circuit, set in a deep valley at 450 metres between Mt. Yahazu and Mt. Nyotai near the Tokushima border....
Ōkunitama Shrine
Fuchu, Tokyo, Japan
Ōkunitama Shrine (大國魂神社) is an active Shinto sacred place in Tokyo. The record is grounded in an exact Google Place ID, nearby coordinates, institutional or reference...
Okunoin
Koya, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan
Okunoin, stands in Koya. At Okunoin, Kōyasan Shingon Buddhism guides custody. Prayer at Okunoin addresses Kōbō Daishi Kūkai in eternal meditation....
Ōmi-dō
Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan
Ōmi-dō is the 25th Bandō station and the sole institutional Buddhist successor of Tsukuba Daigongen — the syncretic Shinto-Buddhist complex that fused Kannon devotion with...
Omiya Hachiman-gu
Suginami City, Tokyo, Japan
Omiya Hachiman-gu (大宮八幡宮) is an active Shinto sacred place in Tokyo. The record is grounded in an exact Google Place ID, nearby coordinates, institutional or reference...
Ōmori Katsuyama Stone Circle
Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, Japan
Three thousand years ago, the Jomon people positioned this stone circle with extraordinary precision: on the shortest day of the year, the setting sun descends directly...
Ongaku-ji
Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, 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...
Ono Shrine
Ichinomiya, Tokyo, Japan
Ono Shrine (武蔵國一之宮小野神社) is an active Shinto sacred place in Tokyo. The record is grounded in an exact Google Place ID, nearby coordinates, institutional or reference...
Ono-Terusaki Shrine
Taito City, Tokyo, Japan
Ono-Terusaki Shrine (小野照崎神社) is an active Shinto sacred place in Tokyo. The record is grounded in an exact Google Place ID, nearby coordinates, institutional or reference...
Onzan-ji
Komatsushima, Tokushima Prefecture, 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....
Oura Cathedral
Nagasaki, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan
Oura Cathedral, stands in Nagasaki. At Oura Cathedral, Roman Catholicism guides custody....
Ōya-ji
Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, 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
Sakuragawa, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan
Rakuhō-ji is the 24th Bandō station, popularly known as Amabiki Kannon — the Rain-Drawing Kannon....
Reiyukai Shakaden Temple
Minato City, Tokyo, Japan
Reiyukai Shakaden Temple (霊友会釈迦殿) is an active Reiyukai sacred place in Tokyo. The record is grounded in an exact Google Place ID, nearby coordinates, institutional or...
Rendai-ji
Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, Japan
Rendai-ji crowns Mt. Yuga (270 m) above Kurashiki and serves as Chūgoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage station #6....
Rengeō-in (Sanjūsangen-dō)
Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
Compassion multiplied along a hall of one thousand Kannon forms. Rengeō-in (Sanjūsangen-dō) remains an active Tendai Buddhism temple....
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
Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
Rokuharamitsu-ji is station 17 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Shingon Buddhism, Kūya nembutsu temple in Kyoto dedicated to Jūichimen Kannon....
Rokuon-ji (Kinkaku-ji)
Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
A Buddhist reliquary of gold, reflection, rebuilding, and Zen custodianship. Rokuon-ji (Kinkaku-ji) remains an active Rinzai Zen Buddhism temple....
Ruri-ji
Hyogo Prefecture, 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
Naruto, Tokushima Prefecture, 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
Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, 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...
Ryusen-ji Temple (Meguro Fudoson)
Meguro City, Tokyo, Japan
Ryusen-ji Temple (Meguro Fudoson) (目黒不動尊 瀧泉寺) is an active Japanese Buddhism sacred place in Tokyo....
Ryūshō-in
Narita, Chiba Prefecture, 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
Uwajima, Ehime Prefecture, 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
Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi Prefecture, 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, Okayama Prefecture, 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, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan
Saigoku-ji — full name Maniyama Sōji-in Saigoku-ji — sits on Mt. Atago above Onomichi's old port, ascended by 108 stone steps....
Saihō-ji
Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
Scripture before moss in a garden formed by Zen attention. Saihō-ji remains an active Rinzai Zen Buddhism temple....
Saihoin
Osaka Prefecture, 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
Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, 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, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan
Saimyō-ji, station 20 of the Bandō Kannon pilgrimage, sits on the wooded slopes of Mt. Tokkō east of Mashiko....
Sairin-ji
Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, 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
Yokoze, Saitama Prefecture, 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
Hyogo Prefecture, 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...
Sakitsu Village
Amakusa, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan
Sakitsu Village, stands in Amakusa. At Sakitsu Village, Hidden Christian and Roman Catholic traditions guides custody....
Sanbutsu-ji
Misasa, Tottori Prefecture, Japan
Sanbutsu-ji, the 31st station of the Chūgoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage, sits on Mt. Mitoku in Misasa, Tottori....
Sankaku-ji
Shikokuchūō, Ehime Prefecture, 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
Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, 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...
Sanzen-in
Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
Amida devotion held within the moss and streams of Ohara. Sanzen-in remains an active Tendai Buddhism temple....
Satake-ji
Hitachiōta, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan
Satake-ji is the 22nd Bandō station and the spiritual ward of the medieval Satake clan....
Sefa-utaki
Nanjo, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan
Sefa-utaki, stands in Nanjo. At Sefa-utaki, Ryukyuan religion guides custody. Prayer at Sefa-utaki addresses Ryukyuan ancestral and divine presences associated with the....
Showing 337-384 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.