Kuchinawazaka is a stone-paved slope located within the Tennoji Seven Slopes of the Uemachi Plateau. You can distinguish this particular passage by its gently winding path that stretches from Taiheiji Temple down to Matsuyamachi-suji. The…
Tennoji Slopes and Bone Buddhas
This quiet walk climbs the historic slopes of Osaka's Uemachi plateau to visit ancient sanctuaries, featuring Osaka's only natural waterfall, a legendary samurai death site, and the famous bone Buddhas of Isshin-ji.
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1. Kuchinawazaka
2. Aizendo Shoman-in
Aizendo Shoman-in features a two-story wooden pagoda, a vermilion-lacquered structure with a square base and a round upper story. Known locally as Aizen-san, the temple grounds possess a history reaching back to the year five hundred…
3. Arisusan Seikoin Kiyomizudera
Arisusan Seikoin Kiyomizudera is distinguished by its wooden stage, which projects over a hillside in the Tennoji district. Modeled after the famous temple of the same name in Kyoto, this branch of the Shitennoji temple complex was revived…
4. Tenjinzaka
Tenjinzaka is one of the seven historic slopes of the Tennoji district, identified by a stone-lined drainage channel constructed by the Osaka City Construction Bureau near its summit. This quiet, stone-paved passage marks the boundary…
5. Yasui Shrine
Yasui Shrine is a small, quiet precinct identified by a stone torii gate at the edge of a residential block in Tennoji. It is most widely known as the site where the warrior Sanada Nobushige—better known by his stage name, Sanada…
6. Isshin-ji Temple
Isshin-ji Temple is defined by its striking main gate, a structure of steel, glass, and bold geometric forms that stands in sharp contrast to traditional wooden temple architecture. Founded in eleven eighty-five by the monk Honen, the site…
7. Shitennoji Koshindo
Shitennoji Koshindo is a site of particular local focus, distinguished by its role as the reported location for the first appearance of the deity Koshin in Japan. The temple marks this event with its dedication to Shomen Kongo-doji, a…
8. Shitennō-ji
Shitennō-ji is recognized as the first state-established Buddhist temple in Japan, commissioned in five hundred ninety-three by Prince Shōtoku. You can identify the complex by its strict, south-to-north architectural axis, which aligns a…
9. Japanese Garden
Keitakuen Garden is a strolling-style Japanese garden characterized by a large, central pond that reflects the surrounding greenery and nearby city skyline. Located within Tennoji Park, this garden occupies the former grounds of the…