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As soon as I heard of Otagi Nenbutsu-ji I knew I’d love it. It’s not listed in the guidebooks or on most Kyoto websites, getting lost amongst the city’s 1600 other Buddhist temples, but it’s definitely the coolest temple we visited.
It features 1200 stone sculptures of rakan, the Buddha’s disciples, all with different facial expressions and poses: cute, scary, sad, serene, funny, bizarre. We spent ages amongst the sculptures and kept noticing new things.
Otagi Nenbutsu-ji temple is hidden away at the far end of the beautiful and popular Arashiyama neighbourhood in Kyoto’s western hills.
Spending a day in this area is one of the top things to do in Kyoto (you’ve probably heard of the bamboo grove), but hardly anyone makes it up to this delightful temple, so you can enjoy it without the crowds.
- Exploring Otagi Nenbutsu-ji
- The Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Story
- How to Get to Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple
- Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Details
- Summary
Exploring Otagi Nenbutsu-ji
The quirky figures are scattered amongst a few small temple buildings and pagodas in a shady complex.
Many are covered in moss and crumbling away, but this just adds to the atmosphere and the feeling of discovering a lost treasure.
Others are better preserved and you can clearly make out the surprising poses. Who expects to see a pair of drinking buddies in a Buddhist temple?
The range of expressions is amazing.
Many temples in Kyoto feature ponds where coins are thrown for good luck. Here one of the rakan has become the target.
The Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Story
Otagi Nenbutsuji isn’t just a fun and absorbing place to wander; it has a fascinating story, too.
The original temple was founded back in the 8th century, but it was the unlucky victim of floods and fires so moved to a safer location in 1922.
Unfortunately, disaster hit again in 1950 when the temple was severely damaged by a typhoon.
In 1955, Kocho Nishimura, a Buddhist statue sculptor and monk, took over as head of the temple and began its artistic transformation.
It took over 30 years to restore and in the 1980s the main project became the creation of the 1200 rakan sculptures.
Remarkably, the statues were created by amateurs who came to the temple to learn carving from Nishimura. He urged them to bring forth the unique figures hiding in the stone and they all had different responses to the challenge.
Nishimura’s son and grandson still run the temple and create their own art.
How to Get to Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple
The temple makes a great day out when combined with Arashiyama’s other attractions.
On our first visit we took the train on the JR San-In/JR Sagano line from Kyoto station to Saga Arashiyama station (20 minutes).
There are a few different stations in Arashiyama with different routes up, so I recommend checking Google Maps for public transport directions.
When travelling from Gion on a different visit, we walked to Kawaramachi station, took the train to Omiya then the Randen tram to Arashiyama, which took about an hour.
In the morning, we visited Tenryu-ji temple where we had a delicious vegetarian lunch at the Shigetsu restaurant.
After lunch we walked in the Arashiyama bamboo grove (expect crowds) and then headed uphill north to Adashino Nembutsu-ji temple.
Keep walking past this temple until you reach the red torii gate—go through this and walk for 10 minutes more. Otagi Nenbutsu-ji is on the left.
It’s a fairly long walk (about 40 minutes from Tenryu-ji), but it’s an enjoyable and beautiful one through quiet traditional streets with the backdrop of lush green hills.
There are a number of other temples you could stop off at along the way. Jojakko-ji is another quiet spot with beautiful gardens and Gio-ji has a picturesque moss garden. See my Kyoto temples guide for more details.
On our next visit we’d like to stop at the 400-year-old Hiranoya teahouse which is just past Adashino Nembutsu-ji.
You could also take a taxi (around 1500 yen from Saga-Arashiyama Station) or infrequent bus—for details see the Otagi Nenbutsuji website.
Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Details
Entrance to the temple costs 400 yen ($3). Under 15 are free.
It’s open from 9 am – 4.30 pm (4.15pm last entry).
The address is 2-5 Fukatani-cho, Saga-Toriimoto, Ukyo-ku, Kyoto 616-8439. You can find it on Google Maps here.
Summary
Otagi Nenbutsu-ji is one of the quirkiest, most interesting temples we’ve ever visited, and one of our favourites of the 25+ Kyoto temples we’ve visited. We highly recommend making time for it if you visit Arashiyama.
Nobody knows? Hahahaha I have been living here for 10 years, first appeared in a French blog and was full lf French people… Since 6 years ago with a post of ig of a smily statue is full of all nationalities, not hidden gem anymore. Everybody wants to get the picture here (& btw not possible to enter between the statues or step in the moss)
Thanks for letting us know – sounds like it’s much busier since we visited.
AMAZING ! EXTREMELY BEAUTIFUL !
THE TENTAI – / BUDDHISTs + ARTISTS
TRANSLATED or TRANSFERRED
BUDDHA’s MESSAGE OF (great) H A P P I N E S S !
Thank you (heart) , Susanna / NL
I was at this unique and beautiful Temple in November. It was one of my favourites as well. I was on a tour with Reiki Masters from around the world and Kyoto is the birth place of Dr. Usui who brought this gift to us.
I really enjoyed your reflections and images. Thanks,
Karen
Wow, that sounds like an amazing experience. I’m glad you enjoyed it too Karen.
Hi Erin,
I’m really glad I found your site! Myself and my girlfriend are in Kyoto and visited the Arashiyama area today. Having seen your pictures this was one place we had to visit – there are a lot of temples and shrines so ones which are unique really appeal to us! We went to the bamboo forest but it was so busy and the constant umbrella bashing made it difficult to enjoy – in the end we turned around and walked up to Gio-Ji, through the historic streets and up to Otagi Nenbutsu-Ji which made for a brilliant day. This and Fushimi Inari have been the most memorable experiences so far!
Otagi. Nenbutsi was spectacular. A hidden treasure! Thank you so much for the recommendation.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
I am planning to visit a few temples in Japan and this one is definitely unique! It is definitely going to be added to part of my itinerary!
Hi,
I discovered your blog when trying to find comments on this fabulous temple I discovered in autumn 2012. When I travelled to Kyoto in autumn 2011, my roomate told me about his temple I didn’t visit because Lonely Planet didn’t mention it on his travel guide. When I visited it last autumn, it was so marvellous. I took many pictures.
Thanks for your blog, I will visit it later.
Annie
Wow, thanks a lot for the wonderful pics. Kyoto never fails to amaze me. I’ve been there three times by now and I already knew that I was still far away from having visited everything that’s worth seeing, but this is just gorgeous. I absolutely want to visit this place.
It’s amazing that more people don’t know about this temple -it’s so unique. I hope you make it back to Kyoto. Even after spending over three weeks there there was still so much to explore.
Thanks for the idea. Looks like a wonderful place to visit.
I love the various expressions on each individual one – definitely a great find.
They are so cute – we spent ages and still didn’t see them all.
It seems like the best kept secrets are always far off the beaten path. Thanks for this!
The good thing is it’s not even that hard to get too, and only a 20 minute walk or so from a major tourist area.
Oh wow, amazing discovery, and love the photos. I definitely want to go there now once I get myself to Japan again. Soon hopefully :)
Thanks! Definitely go there – it’s such a fun and unique place and stands out against the many wonderful temples in Kyoto.