Kuchinawazaka is a steep, stone-paved slope rising from the streets of the Teramachi temple district. Its name comes from the Japanese word for snake, kuchinawa, describing the way the road winds back and forth like a reptile as it climbs…
Tennoji Slopes and Bone Buddhas
This quiet walk climbs the historic slopes of Osaka's Uemachi plateau to visit ancient sanctuaries, featuring Osaka's only natural waterfall, a legendary samurai death site, and the famous bone Buddhas of Isshin-ji.
Listen to this tour in the Mira app →
1. Kuchinawazaka
2. Aizendo Shoman-in
The Aizendo Shoman-in features a main hall roofed in distinctive, weathered copper that has turned a deep green over the centuries. Prince Shotoku founded this temple in the sixth century as a facility to provide medicine and care to the…
3. Arisusan Seikoin Kiyomizudera
Arisusan Seikoin Kiyomizudera sits in the heart of Osaka with a distinct two-story wooden gate that greets visitors from the narrow street. This temple traces its origins back to the mid-seventeenth century when a monk named Jitsuyo…
4. Tenjinzaka
The stone-paved slope of Tenjinzaka rises between two high, vine-covered earthen walls that date back to the early Edo period. It gets its name from the nearby Yasui Shrine, which enshrines Sugawara no Michizane, a scholar often called…
5. Yasui Shrine
The stone tablet near the entrance marks this as the place where the legendary warrior Sanada Yukimura met his end during the Summer Siege of Osaka in sixteen fifteen. A small well, known as the Sanada Well, remains on the grounds as a…
6. Isshin-ji Temple
A bronze statue of a seated Buddha sits behind the main gate, but these figures are composed of human remains. Every ten years, the temple monks collect the ashes of thousands of people, mix them with resin, and cast a new statue to honor…
7. Shitennoji Koshindo
Shitennoji Koshindo is identified by a small stone monument and a modest wooden structure tucked behind a simple gate. It serves as one of the three major Koshin sites in Japan, dedicated to the deity Shomen Kongo. People visit this spot…
8. Shitennō-ji
The five-story pagoda at Shitennō-ji reaches into the sky with a brilliant vermilion frame. Prince Shōtoku founded this temple in five hundred ninety-three, commissioning it to honor the four heavenly kings of Buddhism. While fire and war…
9. Japanese Garden
The Keishuen Garden sits behind the Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts, marked by a massive, centuries-old stone lantern that anchors the northern edge of the pond. This strolling garden was commissioned in nineteen twenty-six by the merchant…