The Most Beautiful Sacred Places in Japan
32 places · updated 14 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful sacred places in Japan are Itsukushima Shrine, Kiyomizu-dera and Tōdai-ji Temple. The list covers 32 sacred places. Last updated 14 October 2026.
Japan's sacred places come from two traditions that have lived side by side for some fourteen centuries. Shinto finds the divine in nature, in mountains, islands, waterfalls and ancient trees, and marks those places with torii gates and plain wooden shrines. Buddhism arrived from the Asian mainland in the sixth century and brought monasteries, pagodas and great bronze images. Both were built in wood, and their craftsmen developed ways of joining, rebuilding and maintaining timber that kept some of the world's oldest wooden buildings standing.
Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima seems to float at high tide, its great vermilion torii standing in the sea. Hōryū-ji near Nara holds some of the oldest surviving wooden buildings in the world, and the Great Buddha Hall of Tōdai-ji shelters a giant bronze Buddha. In Kyoto, Kiyomizu-dera projects its wooden stage over a wooded slope on tall pillars, Fushimi Inari-taisha climbs its mountain through tunnels of thousands of vermilion torii, and Kinkaku-ji reflects its gold-leaf pavilion in a pond.
At Ise, the inner shrine to the sun goddess Amaterasu is rebuilt from fresh timber every twenty years, while Nikkō Tōshō-gū, the mausoleum of the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, is covered in lacquer and carving. Izumo Taisha is one of Japan's oldest shrines, and in the far north Mount Osore, a volcanic caldera of sulphur vents and a still lake, has long been seen as a gateway to the afterlife.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Itsukushima Shrine | Shinto shrine | |
| 2 | Kiyomizu-dera | Temple | ✓ |
| 3 | Tōdai-ji Temple | Temple | ✓ |
| 4 | Fushimi Inari-taisha | Shinto shrine | |
| 5 | Mount Kōya | Pilgrimage site | ✓ |
| 6 | Kinkaku-ji Temple | Temple | ✓ |
| 7 | Ise Grand Shrine | Shinto shrine | |
| 8 | Nikkō Tōshō-gū | Shinto shrine | |
| 9 | Ginkaku-ji Temple | Temple | ✓ |
| 10 | Tō-ji Temple | Pagoda | ✓ |
| 11 | Mount Osore | Pilgrimage site | |
| 12 | Izumo Taisha | Shinto shrine | |
| 13 | Hōryū-ji | Temple | ✓ |
| 14 | Byōdō-in Temple | Temple | ✓ |
| 15 | Eihei-ji Temple | Monastery | |
| 16 | Yama-dera (Risshaku-ji) | Temple | |
| 17 | Kasuga-taisha | Shinto shrine | |
| 18 | Chūreitō Pagoda (Arakurayama Sengen Park) | Pagoda | |
| 19 | Yasaka Pagoda (Hōkan-ji), Kyoto | Pagoda | |
| 20 | Okunoin Cemetery, Mount Kōya | Cemetery | |
| 21 | Sanjūsangen-dō Temple | Temple | |
| 22 | Shrines and Temples of Nikkō | Temple | ✓ |
| 23 | Kumano Nachi Taisha | Shinto shrine | |
| 24 | Saihō-ji (Moss Temple) | Temple | ✓ |
| 25 | Sefa-utaki | Pilgrimage site | |
| 26 | Shirahige Shrine, Lake Biwa | Shinto shrine | |
| 27 | Sanbutsu-ji (Nageire-dō) | Temple | |
| 28 | Ōarai Isosaki Shrine | Shinto shrine | |
| 29 | Heisenji Hakusan Shrine | Shinto shrine | |
| 30 | Five-storied Pagoda, Haguro-san | Pagoda |
01 Itsukushima Shrine
Japan · 15.2 km from Hiroshima34.296° N 132.320° E
Image by JordyMeow from Pixabay Tradition dates the first shrine to 593. Its present form comes from 1168, when Taira no Kiyomori, leader of the ascendant Heike clan, rebuilt it on a lavish scale in honour of the three goddesses of the sea enshrined here, daughters of the storm god Susanoo.
Did you know? In 1555 the warlord Mori Motonari defeated Sue Takafusa in a battle on the island itself, then sponsored extensive repairs, rebuilding the main hall in 1571.
02 Kiyomizu-dera
Japan · 5.3 km from Kyoto34.995° N 135.785° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by JordyMeow from Pixabay The complex has burned many times. The present main hall, a National Treasure, was rebuilt in 1633 with money from the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu, and most of the surrounding buildings, including the three-storey pagoda of 1632, date from the same decades. The hall's great wooden stage projects over the hillside on a lattice of tall pillars, a technique called kakezukuri, and no nails were used in the whole structure.
Did you know? Its founder was the monk Kenshin, later known as Enchin, who according to tradition met Sakanoue no Tamuramaro on the mountain in 780.
03 Tōdai-ji Temple
Japan · 35.3 km from Ōtsu34.689° N 135.840° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by daeron from Pixabay Casting it took nine years and, by some estimates, the labour of over two and a half million people at a time when Japan's entire population was a small fraction of what it is now. The statue was built up in stages from the bottom, pouring roughly 500 tons of molten bronze in successive castings around a wooden and clay armature.
Did you know? The statue is a patchwork of eras: its current hands were made in the Momoyama period and its head in the Edo period.
04 Fushimi Inari-taisha
Japan · 7.5 km from Kyoto34.967° N 135.773° E
Image by Pexels from Pixabay The shrine is the head sanctuary of Inari, the kami of rice and harvest who became the patron of commerce, and it presides over a network of roughly 30,000 Inari shrines across Japan. By tradition it was founded in 711 by the Hata clan, an influential immigrant family from the Korean peninsula, on the slopes of Inariyama, a 233-metre sacred mountain at the southern end of Kyoto's eastern hills.
Did you know? Shops along the approach sell tsujiura senbei, fortune crackers dating back at least to the 19th century that some believe gave rise to the American fortune cookie.
05 Mount Kōya
Japan · 38.3 km from Wakayama34.218° N 135.583° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Lianguanlun · CC BY 4.0 Two poles organise the town. 5 metres high that stands for the centre of the mandala. Nearby is Kongōbu-ji, the head temple of Kōyasan Shingon Buddhism, and the great Daimon, the main gate of the mountain, is flanked by guardian figures. At the other end lies Okunoin, the resting place of Kūkai, who according to Shingon belief did not die but remains in eternal meditation awaiting the future Buddha.
06 Kinkaku-ji Temple
Japan · 2 km from Kyoto35.039° N 135.728° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by siamkop from Pixabay What stands there now isn't the original building. On 2 July 1950, a 22-year-old novice monk named Hayashi Shoken set fire to the pavilion and then attempted suicide on the hillside behind it; he survived, was sentenced to prison, and was released early after his mental illness was recognized, dying of tuberculosis not long after.
Did you know? The fire of 1950 also destroyed an original statue of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu kept inside, which was later re-created.
07 Ise Grand Shrine
Japan · 34.8 km from Tsu34.455° N 136.726° E
MaedaAkihiko · CC0 Ise Jingū is in fact a family of 125 shrines scattered around the city of Ise, held together by two great sanctuaries about six kilometres apart. The Gekū, or Outer Shrine, is dedicated to Toyouke, goddess of food and grain; the Naikū, or Inner Shrine, to Amaterasu, the sun goddess and mythical ancestor of the imperial line, and is said to hold the Sacred Mirror, one of the three imperial regalia.
Did you know? Power tools are not allowed on the shrine site, so the work falls to specialist shrine carpenters, the miyadaiku, using traditional hand techniques.
08 Nikkō Tōshō-gū
Japan · 33.6 km from Utsunomiya36.759° N 139.599° E
Jpatokal · CC BY-SA 4.0 The climax is the Yōmeimon, a gate about eleven metres high covered with some five hundred carvings of dragons, phoenixes, imaginary beasts and sages from Chinese tradition. Its nickname means roughly "the gate of the setting sun": a visitor could stand looking at it all day without noticing the evening come.
Did you know? The three wise monkeys are just one of eight carved panels on the sacred stable that together trace the whole life of a monkey, an animal believed to protect horses.
09 Ginkaku-ji Temple
Japan · 4.6 km from Kyoto35.027° N 135.798° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by Michelle-Maria from Pixabay The main building is the two-storey Kannon hall, begun in 1482 and modelled on the Golden Pavilion that Yoshimasa's grandfather Yoshimitsu had built. Despite its nickname, it was never covered in silver. Work stalled during the war, and the "Silver Pavilion" name only appears in the Edo period. Its simple dark wood and lacquer are now seen as an expression of wabi-sabi, the aesthetic of understatement and imperfection.
Did you know? The bronze phoenix on the roof is a later addition: old records show a jewel-shaped finial there until about the late eighteenth century.
10 Tō-ji Temple
Japan · 5.7 km from Kyoto34.981° N 135.748° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Kakidai · CC BY-SA 4.0 The skyline belongs to the five-storey pagoda. Rebuilt in 1643 on the orders of the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu after earlier versions were lost to fire and lightning, it stands about 55 metres high and is the tallest wooden tower in Japan. The Golden Hall (Kondō), the temple's main hall, houses a statue of Yakushi from 1603, the Buddha of healing, while the Miei-dō stands on the site of Kūkai's residence.
Did you know? Sai-ji, the West Temple, faded away by the 16th century, undone by the poorly drained western city and lack of funds; a small park marks the spot.
11 Mount Osore
Japan41.279° N 141.120° E
Douglas P Perkins ( Douglaspperkins ( talk )) · CC BY 3.0 The Osorezan range is a group of eight somma volcanoes whose highest summit, Mount Kamafuse, reaches 878 metres. The last magmatic eruption took place more than ten thousand years ago, but fumaroles remain active. In the Meiji period sulphur was mined here for gunpowder, though the venture proved unprofitable because of the remoteness of the site.
Did you know? According to the temple legend, Ennin dreamed while studying in Tang China of a sacred mountain thirty days journey east, and set out to find it.
12 Izumo Taisha
Japan · 35.4 km from Matsue35.402° N 132.685° E
MaedaAkihiko · CC BY-SA 4.0 The shrine is dedicated to Ōkuninushi, the deity of good relationships and marriage. According to the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, Japan's oldest chronicles, Ōkuninushi yielded his land to the descendants of the sun goddess Amaterasu, who in return had a great palace built for him at Izumo. A record compiled around 950 describes the shrine as the tallest building in the land, about 48 metres high, taller than the hall of the Great Buddha at Tōdai-ji.
Did you know? Inside the main hall, the seat of Okuninushi faces west rather than south towards the worshippers, a layout with several competing explanations.
13 Hōryū-ji
Japan · 22.8 km from Osaka34.614° N 135.734° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
ONO Masanobu · CC0 The temple was founded by Prince Shōtoku, the great early patron of Buddhism in Japan, and the first complex was completed by about 607, dedicated to Yakushi, the Buddha of healing. According to the Nihon Shoki chronicle, it burned down after a lightning strike in 670. The rebuilt temple, set slightly to the northwest of the original and finished by around 711, is the one that stands today.
Did you know? The Kudara Kannon, a 209 cm figure in camphor wood, first appears in a record of 1698 that claims it came from Baekje but was made in India.
14 Byōdō-in Temple
Japan · 14.1 km from Ōtsu34.889° N 135.808° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by jamie_nakamura from Pixabay The site began in 998 as the country villa of the courtier Minamoto no Shigenobu. The powerful Fujiwara no Michinaga bought it, and his son Yorimichi turned it into a temple in 1052, the year many believed the Latter Day of the Law, a long age of Buddhist decline, had begun. The hall was finished a year later.
Did you know? The gilded Amida statue is about 2.8 metres high and sits with its hands in the lap, thumbs and forefingers forming circles in a meditation gesture.
15 Eihei-ji Temple
Japan · 12.4 km from Fukui36.057° N 136.357° E
掬茶 · CC BY-SA 4.0 The temple was founded by the monk Dōgen, who had travelled to Song China in his twenties, trained under the master Rujing at the Tiantong monastery and brought back the practice of shikantaza, "just sitting". After clashing with the established Tendai monasteries around Kyoto, he accepted the invitation of a samurai follower, Hatano Yoshishige, and moved to Yoshishige's lands in Echizen province in 1243.
Did you know? A great memorial for Dōgen is held every 50 years; the one in 1752 drew some 23,700 monks, and its offerings rebuilt the main gate.
16 Yama-dera (Risshaku-ji)
Japan · 11.3 km from Yamagata38.313° N 140.437° E
663highland · CC BY-SA 4.0 According to temple tradition, the monk Ennin, who had studied in Tang China and led the Tendai school at Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei, founded the temple in 860 on the order of Emperor Seiwa; the oldest wooden statues confirm that it dates at least to the early Heian period, and the sacred flame carried from Enryaku-ji is still kept burning in the main hall.
Did you know? A stone mound called Semizuka, the "cicada mound", was raised on the path in 1751 in honour of Bashō's poem.
17 Kasuga-taisha
Japan · 36.1 km from Ōtsu34.681° N 135.848° E
Image by gregstevens from Pixabay The shrine was founded in 768 by the Fujiwara, the most powerful aristocratic clan of the Nara and Heian periods, to house their tutelary kami. According to the shrine's legend, the first of these gods, Takemikazuchi, arrived on Mount Mikasa riding a white deer, which is why the deer of Nara are still treated as sacred messengers. Four principal deities are enshrined in the main sanctuary.
Did you know? Hunting and logging have been banned in the neighbouring Kasugayama forest since 841, making its woodland backdrop essentially unchanged since the Nara period.
18 Chūreitō Pagoda (Arakurayama Sengen Park)
Japan · 25.8 km from Kōfu35.501° N 138.801° E
lumoplank · CC0 The park itself opened in 1959 on the slopes of Mount Arakura, the sacred hill of the Arakura Fuji Sengen Shrine, one of the Sengen shrines that ring the mountain. From the shrine, the Sakuyahime stairway of 398 steps climbs about 200 m up through the trees to the pagoda and an observation terrace just above it; it is from here that the classic composition opens out, with the town of Fujiyoshida spread below and Fuji rising directly beyond it.
Did you know? The view of the pagoda with Mount Fuji became so familiar in Thailand that it appeared in Thai school textbooks.
19 Yasaka Pagoda (Hōkan-ji), Kyoto
Japan · 4.7 km from Kyoto34.999° N 135.779° E
663highland · CC BY 2.5 Temple tradition credits the foundation to Prince Shōtoku, who is said to have raised a five-storey pagoda here after a divine instruction in a dream, and to have enshrined relics of the Buddha in it. The more sober story told by archaeology still makes it very old: excavations in 2009 confirmed a 7th-century origin, probably in the reign of Emperor Tenmu, long before Kyoto became the capital.
Did you know? The temple took its present name, Hōkan-ji, around 1240, when it was revived by Saiō Shōkyū, the eighth abbot of Kennin-ji.
20 Okunoin Cemetery, Mount Kōya
Japan34.218° N 135.605° E
Image by yamabon from Pixabay The approach begins at the Ichinohashi, the first bridge, where tradition says the Daishi greets pilgrims, and runs for roughly two kilometres through a forest of towering cedars and cypresses, some of them centuries old. On both sides stand moss-covered stone pagodas and stupas, Jizō statues in red bibs, and lichen-streaked lanterns.
Did you know? Memorials to the great warlords Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi stand here, as do those of the bitter rivals Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin.
21 Sanjūsangen-dō Temple
Japan · 5.3 km from Kyoto34.988° N 135.772° E
663highland · CC BY 2.5 The temple was founded in 1164 by Taira no Kiyomori for the retired emperor Go-Shirakawa. Fire destroyed it in 1249, and the present hall was rebuilt by 1266; its name, "hall of thirty-three bays", counts the intervals between its pillars and echoes the thirty-three forms in which Kannon is said to appear.
Did you know? The 876 replacement Kannon statues were carved over 16 years by three schools of Buddhist sculptors: the Kei, En and In schools.
22 Shrines and Temples of Nikkō
Japan · 31.9 km from Utsunomiya36.748° N 139.611° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by ArvidO from Pixabay The reason Nikkō looks the way it does is Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the shogunate that ruled Japan from 1603. His mausoleum-shrine, Tōshō-gū, was first raised in 1617 under his son Hidetada and then enlarged by his grandson Iemitsu, whose rebuilding of 1636 gave it its present splendour.
Did you know? Futarasan Shrine's grounds cover 3,400 hectares, including eight peaks and the Kegon Falls, second in size only to the Ise Grand Shrine.
23 Kumano Nachi Taisha
Japan33.669° N 135.890° E
Image by pen_ash from Pixabay The shrine is one of the Kumano Sanzan, the three grand shrines of Kumano, together with Kumano Hongu Taisha and Kumano Hayatama Taisha. For centuries emperors, aristocrats and commoners walked the mountain routes of the Kumano Kodo to complete the circuit of all three, and since 2004 the shrines and the trails between them have been inscribed together as the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range.
Did you know? A small shrine in the precinct honours Yatagarasu, the three-legged crow; according to legend, after guiding Emperor Jimmu it turned into the Crow Stone that lies nearby.
24 Saihō-ji (Moss Temple)
Japan · 7.3 km from Kyoto34.992° N 135.684° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Ivanoff~commonswiki · CC BY-SA 3.0 The temple's history is older than its moss. Tradition attributes its foundation to the monk Gyōki in 731, in the Nara period, as a temple of the Hossō school. Its decisive moment came in 1339, when the Zen master Musō Soseki was invited to revive it as a Rinzai Zen temple and redesigned its grounds.
Did you know? The shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa helped rebuild it, and he modelled parts of his own retreat, the Silver Pavilion of Ginkaku-ji, on elements of Saihō-ji.
25 Sefa-utaki
Japan · 15.8 km from Naha26.173° N 127.827° E
Ultratomio · CC BY-SA 3.0 Utaki are the sacred places of the indigenous Ryukyuan religion, usually groves or rocks rather than buildings, and Sēfa-utaki was the most sacred of all in the Ryukyu Kingdom. Its ceremonies were in the hands of the Kikoe-ōgimi, the highest priestess of the state. The site probably took its formal shape in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, under King Shō Shin, who centralised the kingdom's religious hierarchy.
Did you know? Excavations in the grove yielded Chinese celadon from the Longquan kilns, magatama beads of gold, jade and glass, and old coins, now a national Important Cultural Property.
26 Shirahige Shrine, Lake Biwa
Japan · 32.5 km from Ōtsu35.274° N 136.011° E
Image by Kanenori from Pixabay The shrine is dedicated to the deity Sarutahiko and is visited for prayers for long life and good marriages. Tradition places its founding more than two thousand years ago, and it is regarded as the head shrine of some 150 Shirahige shrines across the country. Its festivals fall on 3 May and on 5–6 September.
Did you know? The Noh play Shirahige, written by Kan'ami in the fourteenth century, is set at this shrine.
27 Sanbutsu-ji (Nageire-dō)
Japan · 27.6 km from Tottori35.399° N 133.956° E
Saigen Jiro · CC0 The temple's own history is more ordinary but long. It is said that in 849 the monk Ennin installed the three Buddhas, Shaka, Amida and Dainichi, that give Sanbutsu-ji ("Temple of the Three Buddhas") its name. The Nageire-do itself, judged by its style and by tree-ring dating of its timbers, was built in the late Heian period, around the year 1100, and the hall still stands on much of its original wood.
Did you know? A bronze mirror of 997, probably made in Tang China, is engraved with Buddhas of the Womb mandala and backed by two parrots holding flowers.
28 Ōarai Isosaki Shrine
Japan · 11.4 km from Mito36.316° N 140.587° E
Saigen Jiro · Public domain The shrine's origin story is recorded in an official chronicle of the ninth century. In 856, salt makers on this coast saw a light blazing up from the sea at night; the next day two strange stones had appeared on the shore, with some twenty smaller stones gathered around them.
Did you know? The name plaque on the main torii was written by Prince Arisugawa Taruhito, a leading imperial figure of the Meiji era.
29 Heisenji Hakusan Shrine
Japan · 29.2 km from Fukui36.044° N 136.542° E
藤谷良秀(Fujitani Yoshihide) · CC BY-SA 4.0 The quiet is deceptive, because this was once one of the largest religious settlements in Japan. Tradition credits the monk Taicho, said to have been the first to climb sacred Mount Haku, with founding a temple here in 717. Heisen-ji became the Echizen-side base for pilgrims and mountain ascetics heading to the peak, later attached itself to the Tendai headquarters on Mount Hiei, and kept warrior monks of its own.
Did you know? The southern valley, home to married priests, was laid out as a planned town with straight stone-paved streets, and old market place-names still survive nearby.
30 Five-storied Pagoda, Haguro-san
Japan · 12 km from Tsuruoka38.705° N 139.968° E
Mimissu · CC BY-SA 4.0 Tradition attributes the first pagoda on this spot to the warrior Taira no Masakado in the 930s, though this cannot be confirmed. The present building dates from the fourteenth century: according to old Haguro records its pillars were raised in 1369 and the finial was lifted onto the roof in 1377, under the abbot Daihōji Masauji. The lord of Yamagata, Mogami Yoshiaki, had it repaired in 1608.
Did you know? Without its finial, the wooden body of the tower itself rises about 22 metres.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful sacred places in Japan?
- On our list, Itsukushima Shrine ranks first, followed by Kiyomizu-dera and Tōdai-ji Temple.
- Why is Ise Grand Shrine rebuilt every 20 years?
- The ritual, called Shikinen Sengū, renews the shrine buildings in fresh cypress wood beside the old ones and then moves the sacred objects across. It expresses the Shinto ideal of purity and renewal and has kept ancient building techniques alive for well over a thousand years.
- What is the difference between a shrine and a temple in Japan?
- Shrines belong to Shinto and are dedicated to kami, the spirits of nature and ancestors; they are usually entered through a torii gate. Temples belong to Buddhism, house images of the Buddha and often include a pagoda and a main hall.
- Why does the Itsukushima torii stand in the water?
- The island of Miyajima itself was considered sacred, so the shrine was built over the water of the bay and worshippers traditionally approached it by boat through the torii. At low tide the gate can be reached across the sand.
- How many sacred places are on this list in Japan?
- The list covers 32 sacred places.