S P O T ／ SPOT-103

Keisho-ji Ruins Jigoku-Gokuraku Cave

桂昌寺跡・地獄極楽けいしょうじあと・じごくごくらく

On the site of the former Keisho-ji temple in Ajimu, Usa City, a late-Edo-period subterranean pilgrimage walks visitors through a forty-meter Hell tunnel and a thirty-meter Paradise tunnel carved into the hillside. Inside, statues of Enma the Judge, the ox-headed and horse-headed wardens, the old hag who strips the dead at the River of Three Crossings, the Pool of Blood, and the Thirteen Buddhas are arranged so that the visitor physically experiences the journey from damnation to salvation. The walk ends with a vertical shaft that must be climbed by chain to reach paradise — a deliberately demanding finish that turned the route into a popular form of folk Buddhist instruction in the nineteenth century. The site is unstaffed, the lighting is minimal, and a flashlight is essential.