Country guide
Japan sacred sites
One of the clearest countries in the atlas for combining pilgrimage routes, local temple networks, and major heritage destinations. Move between route logic and place logic.
Pilgrimage routes
6 circuits on Pilgrim Map. Each one threads many sites into one journey.
Kantō
Bandō Sanjūsankasho Pilgrimage
Thirty-three temples to Kannon across the eastern plain, a circuit of compassion shaped by twelfth-century warriors and walked still.
33 of 33 stations published
Shikoku
Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage
Eighty-eight temples around an island, a circuit walked beside Kūkai across thirteen centuries.
88 of 88 stations published
Kansai
Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage
The oldest Kannon circuit in Japan — thirty-three temples across western Honshu, walked since the eighth century.
36 of 33 stations published
Kansai
New Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage
A modern Kansai Kannon circuit organized in 1932 to make the old route walkable for working pilgrims.
38 of 33 stations published
Kantō
Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage
Thirty-four temples in a single Saitama valley — the third leg that makes the Hyakkasho complete.
34 of 34 stations published
Chūgoku
Chūgoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage
A modern Kannon circuit across western Honshu, established in 1981 to honor temples that lay outside the great medieval routes.
29 of 33 stations published
Representative sites
A short selection of Japanese sacred places from the atlas.
Akechi-ji (明智寺)
Yokoze, Japan
Akechi-ji is the ninth station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage in Yokoze, Saitama....
Akita Seibo no Sono
Yuzawadai, Yuzawadai, Akita Prefecture, Japan
In the hills of Yuzawadai outside Akita City, the Institute of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist preserves a wooden statue of Mary that,...
Akyū Ruins
Hara, Nagano Prefecture, Japan
Six thousand years ago, the Jomon people gathered here to tend sacred fires beneath the gaze of Mount Tateshina....
Amanoiwato Shrine
Takachiho, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan
In a forested gorge in Kyushu's Takachiho region, pilgrims have gathered for centuries at the cave where Amaterasu, the sun goddess and ancestress of Japan's Imperial...
An'yō-in (安養院)
Kamakura, Japan
An'yō-in is the third station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho — a small Jōdo-shū temple in Kamakura founded as Hōjō Masako's grief-prayer for her husband Minamoto no Yoritomo,...
Anao-ji (穴太寺)
Kameoka, Kameoka, Kyoto, Japan
Anao-ji is station 21 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Tendai Buddhism temple in Kyoto dedicated to Shō Kannon....
Anko-ji
Japan
Ankō-ji is an independent Tendai temple founded in 775 CE by Prince Kaisei on a wooded hillside north of Takatsuki....
Anraku-ji (安楽寺)
Kamiita, Kamiita, Tokushima, Japan
Anraku-ji is Temple 6 of the Shikoku 88, in Kamiita, Tokushima. Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of Healing, presides here, and Anraku-ji is the only fudasho with its own onsen....
Anraku-ji (安楽寺)
Yoshimi, Japan
Anraku-ji, the Yoshimi Kannon, is the eleventh station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho pilgrimage....