Hozen-ji

This guide to Hozen-ji in Osaka opens with a stone Fudo statue so thickly coated in moss its face has vanished, drenched again and again by visitors following a ritual traced back to one desperate prayer sometime after the second World War. You'll hear how that single act spread into a habit across the surrounding entertainment district, and what the temple's founding in 1637 on a former execution ground has to do with its old nickname. Listen for the story of what this statue endured that nothing else nearby did.