Adashino Nenbutsuji Temple
Hillside field of roughly eight thousand weathered stone Buddha statues, once scattered graves of the unclaimed dead.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Adashino Nenbutsuji Temple in Kyoto traces the history of a Kyoto hillside once used as an open-air resting place for the city's unclaimed poor, and the small stone Buddhas neighbors carved for the forgotten dead over the centuries. It follows the early 1900s effort to gather the scattered statues onto this ground, arranged shoulder to shoulder in the rows you see today. Listen for how the temple still marks their memory once a year, on two nights in late August.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Otagi Nenbutsuji
Moss-covered hillside of twelve hundred whimsical stone disciples, each hand-carved by a different amateur visitor.
Rokuharamitsuji Temple
Kamakura-era temple hall built at a crossroads believed to link this world with the next.
Sanzen-in Temple
Tendai temple complex with a moss garden hiding whimsical stone jizo statues among the trees.
Sanjūsangendō Temple
Longest wooden hall in Japan, lined with one thousand and one gilded statues of the goddess of mercy.
Sannenzaka
Stone-paved pilgrim slope of old wooden shopfronts, said to curse anyone who stumbles on its steps.
Hosen-in
Temple garden with a centuries-old pine and a ceiling of blood-stained castle floorboards.