Tochoji Temple

This guide walks into the pitch-black corridor beneath Tochoji Temple's giant seated Buddha in Fukuoka, tracing the jigoku gokuraku pilgrimage that visitors have walked for decades between hidden reliefs of suffering and the promise of paradise. It reaches back to the temple's founding in 806 by the monk Kukai, newly returned from studying Buddhism in Tang China, and to what makes Tochoji one of the oldest Shingon temples on Kyushu. You'll feel your way along the handrail in complete darkness, same as everyone before you.