A massive, egg-shaped stone monument covered in hundreds of slips of paper dominates the courtyard of Yasui Kompiragū Shrine. This slab, known as the Enkiri-enmusubi hi, serves as a gateway for visitors who crawl through its narrow slit to…
Rokuhara Ghosts and Underworld Walk
This walk follows the eerie supernatural history of Kyoto's historic Rokuhara district, where the boundary between our world and the afterlife was once paper-thin. You will visit a temple housing underworld judges, peer at a gateway to the land of the dead, and stand beneath a castle ceiling made from blood-stained floorboards.
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1. Yasui Kompiragū Shrine
2. Rokudō Chinnō-ji Temple
Rokudō Chinnō-ji Temple sits behind a plain wooden gate, marked by a stone pillar carved with the name of the temple. Legend claims this site marks the boundary between the world of the living and the realm of the dead. According to local…
3. Crossroads of the Six Paths
The Crossroads of the Six Paths features a stone Jizo statue tucked within a small, open wooden pavilion. This site marks the boundary between the living and the dead in Buddhist tradition. During the Heian period, the nearby Toribeno area…
4. Saifukuji
The wooden gates of Saifukuji open into a small courtyard dominated by a single, weathered stone statue of Jizo, the protector of travelers and children. While many temples in Kyoto draw massive crowds for their sprawling gardens or golden…
5. Minatoya Yurei Kosodateame Honpo
A wooden shop facade stands on this street, marked by a faded sign advertising yame—a type of hard candy. This building houses Minatoya Yurei Kosodateame Honpo, where the same sweet has been sold since the sixteenth century. Legend says a…
6. Rokuharamitsuji Temple
Rokuharamitsuji Temple features a roofline defined by heavy wooden eaves and a weathered, somber presence that sets it apart from the surrounding neighborhood. Established in nine hundred fifty-one by the monk Kuya, the temple originated…
7. Mimizuka
The Mimizuka mound rises as a grassy, stone-walled hill tucked within a walled garden. It contains the noses of thousands of Korean soldiers and civilians killed during the Japanese invasions of Korea in the late sixteenth century.…
8. Yōgen-in Temple
The ceiling boards at Yogen-in Temple retain the dark, mottled stains of human figures. These are not decorative patterns, but the preserved floorboards from Fushimi Castle, where hundreds of samurai committed ritual suicide following a…