Mizumaki · JP

Chosenji

Chōsen-ji (長専寺) is a small Pure Land (Jōdo-shū) Buddhist temple in the town of Mizumaki, set on the northern-Kyūshū plain between Kitakyūshū and Fukuoka city. Though modest and rooted in everyday devotional life, it has earned a quiet reputation far beyond its neighborhood for one unusual practice: okotsu-butsu, 'bone Buddhas'—little sacred images created and enshrined to hold the cremated remains of the departed. The temple is far from a museum showpiece, and a visit is best understood as a glimpse of living Japanese faith rather than a list of sights. Its grounds pair a striking funerary custom with a genuinely old pedigree—tradition ties it to the wandering holy man Nenyo Shōnin—and an atmospheric shrine to a 'Mirror Kannon' linked to a famous Noh play. For the culturally curious traveler passing through Fukuoka's Onga district, it offers something intimate and uncommon.