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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Related Japan guides
Showing 385-432 of 545 sites in this country guide
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...
Saidouji Temple
Niimi, Okayama, Japan
Saidouji is a Soto Buddhist temple in the mountains of Niimi, known for its Koyasu Kannon and prayers for childbirth....
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....
Sefuku-ji
Izumi, Osaka Prefecture, 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
Kyoto Prefecture, 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
Nachikatsuura, Wakayama Prefecture, 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
Kōchi, Kochi Prefecture, 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...
Sengaku-ji
Minato City, Tokyo, Japan
Sengaku-ji (泉岳寺) is an active Soto Buddhism sacred place in Tokyo. The record is grounded in an exact Google Place ID, nearby coordinates, institutional or reference...

Senkō-ji
Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan
Senkō-ji — full name Daihōzan Gongen-in Senkō-ji — clings to the mid-slope of Mt. Senkō above Onomichi harbor....
Sennyū-ji
Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
Buddhist worship and imperial memorial care at the Mitera. Sennyū-ji remains an active Shingon Buddhism, Sennyū-ji school temple....
Sensō-ji
Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan
Sensō-ji, the Asakusa Kannon, is the thirteenth station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho pilgrimage and Tokyo's oldest temple....
Senyū-ji
Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, Japan
Senyū-ji crowns Mt. Sakurei south of Imabari, the 58th temple of the Shikoku 88....
Setagaya Hachiman-gu
Setagaya City, Tokyo, Japan
Setagaya Hachiman-gu (世田谷八幡宮) is an active Shinto sacred place in Tokyo. The record is grounded in an exact Google Place ID, nearby coordinates, institutional or reference...
Shasui Falls
Yamakita, Kanagawa, Japan
Shasui Falls in Yamakita is remembered as a place of Buddhist water austerities....

Shiba Daijingū
Minato City, Tokyo, Japan
Shiba Daijingū (芝大神宮) is an active Shinto sacred place in Tokyo. The record is grounded in an exact Google Place ID, nearby coordinates, institutional or reference...
Shiba-Toshogu Shrine
Minato City, Tokyo, Japan
Shiba-Toshogu Shrine (芝東照宮) is an active Shinto sacred place in Tokyo. The record is grounded in an exact Google Place ID, nearby coordinates, institutional or reference...

Shibamata Taishakuten
Katsushika City, Tokyo, Japan
Shibamata Taishakuten (柴又帝釈天) is an active Nichiren Buddhism sacred place in Tokyo....

Shido-ji
Sanuki, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan
Shido-ji stands beside Shido Bay on the Sanuki coast as the eighty-sixth temple of the Shikoku circuit....
Shimabu-ji
Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, Japan
Shimabu-ji is the first temple of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage in Saitama, Japan....

Shimogamo-jinja Shrine
Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
Kamo worship carried through Tadasu no Mori and ritual water. Shimogamo-jinja Shrine remains an active Shinto shrine....
Shimpuku-ji
Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, 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....
Shin-Yakushi-ji
Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan
Shin-Yakushi-ji in Nara is a Buddhist temple whose main hall centres on Yakushi Nyorai, the Medicine Buddha, surrounded by protective divine generals....

Shinagawa Shrine
Shinagawa City, Tokyo, Japan
Shinagawa Shrine (品川神社) is an active Shinto sacred place in Tokyo. The record is grounded in an exact Google Place ID, nearby coordinates, institutional or reference...

Shinobazu no Ike Bentendō
Taito City, Tokyo, Japan
Shinobazu no Ike Bentendō (不忍池辯天堂) is an active Japanese Buddhism sacred place in Tokyo....

Shinshō-ji
Muroto, Kochi Prefecture, 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....

Shiofune Kannon-ji
Ome, Tokyo, Japan
Shiofune Kannon-ji (塩船観音寺) is an active Shingon Buddhism sacred place in Tokyo. The record is grounded in an exact Google Place ID, nearby coordinates, institutional or...
Shiraito no Taki, Fujinomiya
Shizuoka, Japan
At Shiraito no Taki in Fujinomiya, Mount Fuji's sacred geography extends beyond the summit to water emerging along a broad cliff....
Shirataki Falls, Toba
Mie, Japan
Shirataki in Toba is part of a mountain honored as the presence of Shirataki Daimyōjin....
Shiromine-ji
Sakaide, Kagawa Prefecture, 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
Osaka Prefecture, 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
Higashimatsuyama, Saitama Prefecture, 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...
Showing 385-432 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.