Yasaka-ji

The temple houses 8,000 ceramic Amida Buddha statues in its basement, each purchased by devotees who had their names written on them. This underground collection creates an eerie, candlelit atmosphere.

At its peak in the Kamakura period, Yasaka-ji administered 48 branch temples and had its own army of warrior monks before being destroyed in the 1500s wars and rebuilt as a much smaller temple.

Pilgrims can walk through underground tunnels depicting heaven and hell, with the hell tunnel paved with sharp stones and decorated with grotesque imagery. It's an unusually physical way to experience Buddhist cosmology.

Eight burial mounds near the temple are said to be the graves of Emon Saburo's eight sons, who died after their father refused alms to a monk (actually Kukai in disguise) and broke his bowl into eight pieces.