It’s cold year round, not hot, in the Hanibe Cave where the “Fushi Jigoku” (Satirical expression of Hell) sit alongside eerily lit statues on a winding path through this natural cave. Located in the Chubu region of Japan, Ryumyoji Town in Ishikawa Prefecture is home to a paradox of peaceful prayer and images of hell.   […]

Kobo Daishi is the posthumous name of a Buddhist monk known as Kukai who established the Shignon sect of Buddhism with the creation of a seminary community and an Esoteric Buddhism School over 1,200 years ago on Mt. Koya in Wakayama Prefecture. Today, statues and images of Kobo Daishi abound in Japan and many believe […]

Old or young, we all have superstitions that we have grown up with.  The activities that we engage in are not usually dictated  by these superstitions but there some things that we do, or don’t do, out of habit without even thinking about the fact that they are based on superstition.  Some superstitions are unique […]

Many visitors to Japan can’t tell the difference between a shrine and a temple and they often use the terms interchangeably. Using the terms temple and shrine interchangeably is the same as using the terms church and synagogue interchangeably.  Two primary religions are practiced in Japan, Shinto which is practiced at a shrine and Buddhism, […]