Start here · Essential guide
Japanese Temples and Shrines: A Guide to Sacred Places
How Japanese Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines differ in origin, buildings and purpose, and how both fit into daily routines and the yearly calendar.
Ideas and Beliefs
Temples, Shrines and Pilgrimage
Sacred places, their architecture, rituals and the roads between them.
Buddhist Temple Layout and Its Main Buildings
A walk through the gates, main hall, pagoda, lecture hall, bell tower and other buildings typical of a Japanese Buddhist temple compound, and how arrangements vary.
Jizo Statues and Roadside Devotion
Who Jizo is, why small stone figures with red bibs stand at roadsides and cemeteries, and what they commonly mean to travelers, families and communities in Japan.
Omamori and Ema: Charms and Votive Plaques
What omamori protective charms and ema wooden wish plaques are, where the customs come from, and how they are used at Japanese shrines and temples today.
Pilgrimage Routes in Japan and the Walking Tradition
The history of Japan's long walking routes between sacred sites, from the Kumano paths to the Shikoku circuit and the Kannon circuits, and how they are walked today.
Shugendo and the Mountain Faith Tradition
How Japan's mountains came to be seen as sacred, and how Shugendo practitioners, called yamabushi, combined Buddhist, Shinto and folk elements in mountain training.
Temple Gardens, Bells and the Sounds of Sacred Spaces
How sound, scent and setting shape a visit to a Japanese temple, from the deep tone of the great bell to incense smoke, gravel paths, moss and trickling water.
Torii Gates: What They Mark and How They Are Built
What a torii gate marks at a Shinto shrine, how its crossbeams and pillars are built, the main styles and materials, and why some shrines have thousands of them.
Visiting a Shrine: Purification, Offering and Etiquette
The commonly described steps of a Shinto shrine visit, from the bow at the gate and hand washing to the offering, bows and claps, with notes that practice varies.
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