Temples & Shrines

Temples (o-tera, Buddhist) and shrines (jinja, Shinto) are Japan's two distinct religious traditions, and telling them apart on sight is straightforward once you know the marker: a shrine's entrance is a torii gate, often vermillion, while a temple's is a sanmon gate guarded by carved figures. The two traditions have coexisted and overlapped for over a thousand years, so it is common to find a small shrine on temple grounds or vice versa.

Etiquette differs by site but a few habits apply almost everywhere: bow slightly on passing through a torii or sanmon gate, use the water basin near the entrance to rinse your hands (and traditionally your mouth) before proceeding, and keep voices down near the main hall. At a shrine, the customary approach to the offering box is a coin, two bows, two claps, a bow; temples do not clap. Photography of the grounds is almost always fine; photography inside a main hall or of a specific altar sometimes is not, and a posted sign or a staff member's gesture will make that clear.

Most temple and shrine grounds are free to enter; treasure halls, inner sanctuaries and specific gardens often charge a separate small fee. The greatest concentration is in Kyoto and Nara, home to Japan's former imperial capitals and the bulk of its UNESCO-listed religious architecture, but every prefecture has significant sites — mountain temples in Yamagata, pilgrimage routes in Wakayama and Shikoku, and city shrines that anchor neighborhoods well outside the tourist centers.