Buddhism in Japan | Hey Japan!

Temple

Eiheiji Temple

One of the two head temples of Soto Zen, founded in 1244 in the mountains of Fukui and still a working monastery of about 150 monks.

Eiheiji · Fukui

Mountain

Mt. Gassan

The highest of the three mountains of Dewa in Yamagata, sacred to the moon god, with a shrine at the summit that opens only in high summer.

Tsuruoka · Yamagata

Mountain

Mt. Haguro

The lowest of the three mountains of Dewa in Yamagata, climbed by a stone stair through old cedars, with a five-storey pagoda that is a National Treasure.

Tsuruoka · Yamagata

Temple

Eiheiji Temple

One of the two head temples of Soto Zen, founded in 1244 in the mountains of Fukui and still a working monastery of about 150 monks.

Eiheiji · Fukui

Mountain

Mt. Gassan

The highest of the three mountains of Dewa in Yamagata, sacred to the moon god, with a shrine at the summit that opens only in high summer.

Tsuruoka · Yamagata

Mountain

Mt. Haguro

The lowest of the three mountains of Dewa in Yamagata, climbed by a stone stair through old cedars, with a five-storey pagoda that is a National Treasure.

Tsuruoka · Yamagata

Temple

Yamadera (Risshakuji)

A Tendai temple of 860 built up a rock face in Yamagata, its halls reached by a stone stairway, and the place of Basho's poem about cicadas.

Yamagata

Temple

Daihoji Temple

The forty-fourth temple of the Shikoku pilgrimage and its halfway point, standing among old trees at 579 metres in the mountains of Ehime.

Kumakogen · Ehime

Mountain

Cherry Blossoms at Mount Yoshino

About thirty thousand cherry trees on a mountainside in Nara, planted over centuries as offerings, which come into flower from the foot upward over a month.

Yoshino · Nara

Temple

Nishiyama Koryuji

A mountain temple in Saijo, Ehime, founded in 642, reached by a long approach under maples, with a main hall that is an Important Cultural Property.

Saijo · Ehime

Temple

Iwayaji Temple

The forty-fifth temple of the Shikoku pilgrimage, built against cliffs in the mountains of Ehime, where the mountain itself is the object of worship.

Kumakogen · Ehime

Temple

Jofukuji

A temple at Emukae in Sasebo where the maples of the garden are shown upside down, reflected in a panel set into the floor of the hall.

Sasebo · Nagasaki

Temple

Sofukuji Temple

A Chinese temple in Nagasaki founded in 1629 by merchants from Fujian, with two buildings that are National Treasures.

Nagasaki

Temple

Kofukuji Temple

The first Chinese temple built in Nagasaki, founded in 1620, and the place where the Obaku school of Zen began in Japan.

Nagasaki

Temple

Shinshoji Zen Temple

A Rinzai Zen temple at Fukuyama with tea houses, moved historic halls, gardens, and one of the largest collections of Hakuin's Zen painting.

Fukuyama · Hiroshima

Mountain

Mount Kurotaki

A 266-metre hill above Tadanoumi in Takehara, half an hour's walk to a view over Okunoshima and the islands of the Seto Inland Sea.

Takehara · Hiroshima

Temple

Fukuzenji Temple (Taichoro)

The guest hall of a Shingon temple at Tomonoura, built around 1690, whose view over the Seto Inland Sea a Korean envoy called the finest in Japan.

Fukuyama · Hiroshima

Temple

Kongobu-ji (Koyasan)

Mount Koya is a sacred temple complex where the entire mountain is treated as one unified holy domain dedicated to Shingon Esoteric Buddhism.

Koya · Wakayama

Religious Site

Okunoin (Koyasan)

The innermost sanctuary of Koyasan, where a two-kilometre path through ancient cedars and 200,000 graves leads to the mausoleum of Kobo Daishi.

Koya · Wakayama

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

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

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