Buddhism in Japan | Hey Japan!

Buddhism is one of the major religions in Japan and has played a significant role in the country's history and cultural development for over a thousand years. Buddhism was introduced to Japan in the 6th century and has since become deeply ingrained in the country's religious and cultural fabric, with an estimated 100 million followers in Japan today.

Exhibition

Sacred Monsters in Buddhist Art

An exhibition exploring how Buddhist art depicts non-human beings such as serpents and demons alongside buddhas and bodhisattvas across different regions.

11 Jul – 16 Aug 2026Kyoto · Kansai

Exhibition

Kukai and the Treasures of Shingon Buddhism

Tokyo National Museum marks the 1,250th anniversary of Kukai's birth with 88 Shingon temple treasures, including 15 National Treasures and nine secret statues.

14 Jul – 6 Sep 2026Tokyo · Kanto

Market

Buddhism is one of the major religions in Japan and has played a significant role in the country's history and cultural development for over a thousand years. Buddhism was introduced to Japan in the 6th century and has since become deeply ingrained in the country's religious and cultural fabric, with an estimated 100 million followers in Japan today.

Exhibition

Sacred Monsters in Buddhist Art

An exhibition exploring how Buddhist art depicts non-human beings such as serpents and demons alongside buddhas and bodhisattvas across different regions.

11 Jul – 16 Aug 2026Kyoto · Kansai

Exhibition

Kukai and the Treasures of Shingon Buddhism

Tokyo National Museum marks the 1,250th anniversary of Kukai's birth with 88 Shingon temple treasures, including 15 National Treasures and nine secret statues.

14 Jul – 6 Sep 2026Tokyo · Kanto

Market

Iizumi Kannon Daruma Fair

An annual market held in December where visitors purchase traditional daruma dolls representing wishes for health, family unity, and prosperity.

17–18 Dec 2026

Kanagawa · Kanto

Market

Enmei-ji Temple Annual Market (Daruma Market)

A year-end market features daruma dolls, traditional symbols of resilience, accompanied by a distinctive soul-insertion ritual using flint sparks.

28 Dec 2026Kanagawa · Kanto

Festival

Motsu-ji Temple Hatsukayasai Festival

The final day of this week-long Buddhist observance at a UNESCO World Heritage temple features torchlit processions and prayers for good fortune.

14–20 Jan 2027Iwate · Tohoku

Festival

Nagasaki Lantern Festival

The festival illuminates Nagasaki's streets with around 15,000 Chinese lanterns, some reaching 10 metres, celebrating Lunar New Year traditions.

6–23 Feb 2027Nagasaki · Kyushu

Festival

Saidai-ji Eyo Festival

At this over 500-year-old Okayama festival, men in loincloths compete for a wooden stick, with the victor becoming the 'Lucky Man' and receiving believed year-long blessings.

21 Feb 2027Okayama · Chugoku

Festival

Urasa Bishamondō Naked Man Festival

A 1,200-year-old midwinter festival features bare-chested men competing to ascend to the temple and offer prayers to the protective deity Bishamonten.

7 Mar 2027Niigata · Chubu

Illumination

Zuiryuji Temple "Spring Light-up"

Colored lights and music illuminate this National Treasure temple in spring, accompanied by a market featuring local goods and specialties.

22 Apr – 5 May 2027Toyama · Chubu

Festival

Mamada no Jaga Maita

Before the rice-planting season, children parade enormous painted serpents through town while chanting, immersing them in a pond as part of a centuries-old rainmaking ritual.

5 May 2027Tochigi · Kanto

Illumination

ZEN NIGHT Tofukuji

Nighttime illumination event at a historic Kyoto temple featuring vibrant green maple leaves paired with original soundscape music designed to calm the mind.

29 May – 5 Jul 2027Kyoto · Kansai

Festival

Aizen Festival

A 1,400-year-old temple festival honors a Buddhist deity associated with love and good fortune through public celebrations and sacred displays.

30 Jun – 2 Jul 2027Osaka · Kansai

Festival

Abare Festival

Illuminated lanterns parade through coastal Ushitsu in a celebration rooted in legend, featuring frenzied rituals to honor spiritual protection from epidemics.

3–4 Jul 2027Ishikawa · Chubu

Historic Site

Asuka-Fujiwara

The Nara-Prefecture ruins where Japan's first centralised state took shape, newly inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2026.

Kashihara · Nara

Shrine

Inage Shrine

A thousand-year-old shrine in central Kawasaki dedicated to victory and harmony, and home to the Kawasaki Sanno Festival.

Kawasaki · Kanagawa

Temple

Myorakuji Temple

A Tendai temple in the Nagao Hills of Kawasaki, known as the "hydrangea temple" for the 1,000 shrubs that fill its grounds each June, with a June festival.

Kawasaki · Kanagawa

Temple

Togakuin

A Tendai temple in the Kawasaki hills, known as the "azalea temple" for the 2,000 shrubs that colour its slopes each spring, and for its healing prayers.

Kawasaki · Kanagawa

Shrine

Kumano Taisha Shrine

One of three major Kumano shrines in Japan, Kumano Taisha was established in 806 and is known as the Ise Shrine of the North for its significance.

Nanyo · Yamagata

Temple

Naritasan Shinshoji

Naritasan Shinshoji in Narita, Chiba, is a head temple of Shingon Buddhism, centred on a Fudo Myoo image attributed to Kukai and a goma fire ritual unbroken for 1,080 years.

Narita · Chiba

Temple

Tsukiji Hongwanji

Tsukiji Hongwanji is a striking Shin Buddhist temple in central Tokyo, blending Indian-inspired architecture, Silk Road motifs, and animal carvings by Ito Chuta.

Tokyo

Religious Site

Ushiku Daibutsu

Towering bronze statue of Amitabha Buddha standing 120 meters tall, built to honour Shinran, founder of the True Pure Land School, with interior exhibitions on Buddhism history.

Ushiku · Ibaraki

Temple

Saijo Inari

Saijo Inari is a 1,200-year-old Buddhist temple and one of Japan's three great Inari sites, preserving a rare form of Shinto-Buddhist syncretic worship.

Okayama

Temple

Tofukuji Temple

Tofukuji is one of Kyoto's great Zen temples, celebrated for its sweeping maple valley and the modern garden surrounding the abbot's quarters.

Kyoto

Temple

Kimiidera

A 1,250-year-old Buddhist temple in Wakayama that holds the second position on Japan's oldest pilgrimage route dedicated to Kannon worship.

Wakayama

Shrine

Yuga Shrine

Sacred mountain shrine in Okayama with more than two thousand years of history, blending Shinto and Buddhist practices as a centre of pilgrimage.

Kurashiki · Okayama

Temple

Saikyo-ji Temple

Saikyo-ji, the head temple of the Tendai Shinsei sect, was founded by Prince Shotoku and reorganized in 1486 as the sect's central training site.

Otsu · Shiga

Temple

Miidera Temple

Head temple of the Tendai Jimon sect, Miidera was founded in the seventh century and has survived repeated destruction, earning the name Phoenix Temple.

Otsu · Shiga

Temple

Daigo-ji Temple

Over 1,100-year-old Buddhist temple complex and head temple of the Daigo branch of Shingon Buddhism, centered on an ancient natural spring.

Kyoto

Temple

Ishiyamadera

A Shingon Buddhist temple in Otsu traditionally founded in 747, preserving numerous important cultural properties and National Treasures of traditional architecture.

Otsu · Shiga

Temple

Zenyoji Temple

A Shingon Buddhist temple beside the Tama River houses a protected 700-800 year old kaya tree and a pair of rare mythical fire-protecting statues.

Tokyo

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