Amitābha Buddha (Amida Nyorai)

Sacred focus

UNESCOPure Land Buddhism

Byōdō-in

Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan

Amida’s Pure Land reflected in the waters before Phoenix Hall. Byōdō-in remains an active Pure Land Buddhism temple....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Eifuku-ji

Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, Japan

Eifuku-ji sits in a quiet bamboo and cedar grove on a low hill above Imabari, the 57th stop on the Shikoku 88-temple pilgrimage....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Enmyō-ji

Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, Japan

Temple 53 of the Shikoku henro is small, layered, and unusually plural. Its Shingon Hondō houses an Amida Nyorai principal image — uncommon for the school....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Gokuraku-ji

Naruto, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan

Gokuraku-ji is Temple 2 of the Shikoku 88, sitting 1.4 km southwest of Temple 1 in Naruto....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Gōshō-ji

Utazu, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan

Temple 78 Gōshō-ji rises above the old port of Utazu on a hill overlooking the Seto Inland Sea....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Jinne-in

Kan'onji, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan

Jinne-in stands on Mt. Kotohiki in Kan'onji, Kagawa, sharing a single precinct with Kannon-ji at Temple 69 — one of the rarest configurations on the Shikoku 88....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Jūraku-ji

Awa, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan

Jūraku-ji is Temple 7 of the Shikoku 88, in Awa, Tokushima. The 'Temple of Ten Joys' offers two specialized intercessions: an eye-healing Jizō beside the Hondō and a row...

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Maegami-ji

Saijō, Ehime Prefecture, Japan

Maegami-ji is the 64th fudasho on the Shikoku 88 and the principal Buddhist anchor of the Mt. Ishizuchi sacred-mountain cult....

Sacred focus

UNESCOShingon Buddhism, Omuro school

Ninna-ji

Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan

Imperial memory and Shingon practice among Omuro’s late cherries. Ninna-ji remains an active Shingon Buddhism, Omuro school temple....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Yasaka-ji

Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, Japan

Yasaka-ji is the forty-seventh temple of the Shikoku pilgrimage and one of its most layered....

Sacred focus

Buddhism

Zenrakuji

Kōchi, Kochi Prefecture, Japan

Zenrakuji stands beside Tosa Shrine, the province's first-ranked Shintō shrine, on ground that originally hosted a syncretic kami-Buddha precinct founded by Kūkai....

Sacred focus

UNESCOKorean Buddhism

Buseoksa Temple

Yeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea

Buseoksa Temple rises in measured terraces on Bonghwangsan above Yeongju. Founded in the Silla period and closely associated with the monk Uisang, the active monastery...

Sacred focus

Korean Buddhism

Gakwonsa Temple

Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea

Gakwonsa is a modern Buddhist temple on Taejosan, best known for a vast seated bronze Amitabha Buddha. The image is not simply a large tourist object....