Temples in Japan

A mountaintop Buddhist temple with panoramic views of Hiroshima.

These 33 Zen Buddhist temples were built to protect the nearby castle.

A grand Buddhist temple with Indian influences.

Though not uncommon in western Japan, this Buddha cut out of an ancient sarcophagus is the only example in central Tokyo.

This temple is home to a group of Buddha statues made from thousands of bones and ashes of the deceased.

Electricians pray for luck at this place where, according to legend, the god of thunder was once trapped.

Take a lick of the legendary homemade miso paste that protected this Buddhist temple’s scrolls from a fire centuries ago.

Considered the oldest intact wooden structure in Tokyo Prefecture, this impressive temple was built in 1407.

A quartet of temple guardian statues that allegedly cry at night for being forbidden from wrestling.

The eerie, tragic setting of one of Japan’s most popular ghost stories.

This compact temple is filled with garlands of colorful balls that represent restrained monkeys.

In a shopping arcade, a modernized temple deeply tied to feudal Japan’s prominent warlords.

In the former treasury of a popular temple, a rare sculptural depiction of Kannon’s diverse avatars.

This surreal thumbs-up monument commemorates a shiatsu legend.

A single block in this stone staircase to the temple is mysteriously always wet.

Here lies Hattori Hanzō, a samurai who is remembered as a legendary ninja in today’s popular culture.