Adashino Nenbutsu-ji

photo by Nankou Oronain (as36… · CC BY-SA 3.0

On two evenings at the end of August they light a candle in front of every stone, and you enter in the dark.

A square enclosure, and inside it tight rows of small stelae and stone statues, one beside the other like a standing crowd. None of them bears a name. They are gravestones gathered from all over the area. The temple does not say how many there are.

Adashino was the place where, in the Heian period (the centuries when Kyoto was the capital of the court), the dead who had no one to bury them were left in the open. The stones scattered around the area were later brought together inside this enclosure.

ℹ️ ¥500 adults, ¥400 junior high and high school students, free for accompanied children. It opens at 9:00 and reception closes at 16:30, ⚠️ but from December to February it closes at 15:30. There is no weekly closing day; the temple closes for weather warnings and when the ground is dangerous in winter. The visit takes half an hour. ⚠️ The candle ritual, the Sentō Kuyō, is on the last Saturday and the last Sunday of August, from 17:30 to 21:00: it is not a fixed date, and it is not 23–24 August as you read elsewhere. It needs to be checked on that year's calendar, because the difference moves an itinerary by a week.

🚉 Torokko Arashiyama Station · 18 min walk

Sources: nenbutsuji.jp

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