Photo By: Matt Coslett
Region
Kansai
Island
Honshu
Largest City
Osaka
Population
8,804,806

Senko-ji Temple

The road to hell isn’t paved with good intentions, but with fruit stalls and toy shops.

Finding your way to the heaven or hell temple, Senko-ji, is like navigating your way through a bizarre purgatory in Osaka Prefecture.

Once you get there, though you’ll have the chance to experience the horrors of hell on one side and the serenity of heaven on the other.

Whether you decide to head to heaven or hell first, you will get a very different experience.

This mysterious temple is about a 30-minute train ride from Osaka City, and then a winding 10-minute walk through a residential area with few signs or markers.

It is almost impossible to imagine that the gateway to hell lurks amongst stores selling shoes and children playing games like kendama. It seems the sages were wrong, we now know that the road to hell isn’t paved with good intentions, it’s paved with fruit stalls and toy shops.

Hell

Photo by: Matt Coslett Welcome to hell.

Finally arriving at the temple, visitors usually make a point of traveling to the hell half of the temple before going to heaven. In the hell part, you can enjoy macabre thrills such as putting your head in a rock and hearing the sounds of the accursed suffering in fiery damnation and getting your photo taken with demon horns.

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After enjoying some schadenfreude, the courageous should head for the nearby hut that represents the entrance to hell. Appropriately, the entrance to the accursed land is dark, hot and crowded and features a huge devil statue that looms over you.

Next to the Archfiend is a Japanese horror called the Yamauba (a mountain cave-dwelling hag). While Beelzebub may be the more imposing figure, it’s the Yamauba that has the voice. The hag cackles its story of taking stray children over the sound system while the foul creature’s words are animated on a nearby video screen.

Heaven

Photo by: 聖石大戦ぶぅぶぅ Senko-ji entrance way.

Instead of a devil and a rotting hag looming over you, the door to heaven is dotted with the friendly faces of lucky gods such as Daruma, Saigyou, Jyorojin and Hotei. Intriguingly, while the entrance to Hell is above ground, in order to get to heaven, you have to head into a cavern buried underground.

Looks like the sages got that one wrong, too! Heaven is actually deep below ground. Thankfully for people visiting in the summer, the heaven temple is water-themed and full of mandalas and candles in the water which makes for both a cool and tranquil experience.

What’s your fate?

Photo by: Matt Coslett Answer questions and choose your fate!

Whether you decide to head to heaven or hell first, you will get a very different experience. If you are torn about which afterlife awaits you, you can actually let the temple itself decide your fate. Near the entrance, there is a machine where you can answer questions based on your personality, and the machine will tell you whether heaven or hell is your most likely direction.

The best part about Senko-ji is at least whichever one you end up at will be an amazing experience.

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Dig this scenery? Check out more temples in Japan.

Trivia

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Things To Know

How To Get There

Address

Japan, 〒547-0044 Ōsaka-fu, Ōsaka-shi, Hirano-ku, Hirano Honmachi, 4 Chome−12−21, 全興寺

By train

Take the Osaka Loop line and change at Shin-Imamiya station. Then take the Yamatoji line to Hirano station. It is about an 11-minute walk from Hirano station.

 

Where To Stay

City Inn Nishi Tanabe
  • 1-5-16 Nishitanabecho, Osaka-shi Abeno-ku, Osaka, 545-0014 Japan
  • ¥5,900 - ¥28,000
  • 3/5 (405 reviews)
  • 3.7 km
Osaka Guesthouse Nest
  • 2-4-14 Teradacho, Osaka-shi Tennoji-ku, Osaka, 543-0045 Japan
  • ¥2,900 - ¥9,800
  • 4.25/5 (74 reviews)
  • 4.1 km
Sekai Hotel Fuse
  • 1-19-1 Ajiro, Higashiosaka-shi, Osaka, 577-0841 Japan
  • ¥3,600 - ¥45,500
  • 4.3 km
Miyako City Osaka Tennoji
  • 1-2-8 Matsuzakicho, Osaka-shi Abeno-ku, Osaka, 545-0053 Japan
  • ¥13,200 - ¥31,900
  • 4.21/5 (2,940 reviews)
  • 4.4 km
Kamon Inn Osaka
  • 4-18-3 Abenosuji, Osaka-shi Abeno-ku, Osaka, 545-0052 Japan
  • ¥18,000 - ¥20,000
  • 5/5 (5 reviews)
  • 4.5 km

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