600 steps up to Kōshō-ji, one of Japan's three shrines for children.
At the top of the 600 steps of Mount Iwafune stands Kōshō-ji, a Tendai temple traditionally said to have been founded in the Nara period, called ‘the Kōya-san of the Kantō’ as a place where souls gather. It is counted among Japan's three great temples for the protection and upbringing of children (子授け・子育て地蔵尊). The gate (山門) is the largest in the prefecture, and the mid-Edo three-storey pagoda is a Tangible Cultural Property of the prefecture. The quarry on the mountainside, a film set for its explosions, cannot be visited freely: the place you actually visit is the temple on the summit.
Former quarry on the side of Mount Iwafune, 172 m.
ℹ️ The quarry is not freely accessible; you climb the mountain up to Kōshō-ji temple, on the summit.
🚉 Iwafune · 8 min walk
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Live-action filming location. The face of the former quarry is the long-standing explosion set of Japanese cinema: the mountain behind the school, where the last lesson takes place, was filmed here in ‘Assassination Classroom – Graduation’ from 2016.
Sources: tochigi-film.jp · kyodonewsprwire.jp · loca.ash.jp · tochigiji.or.jp · travel.co.jp
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