Iwato-ji

Iwatoji, formally known as Ishidate-san, is a temple of the Tendai school located in the northeastern part of the Kunisaki Peninsula, Kunisaki City, Oita Prefecture. It was designated as a prefectural historic site of Oita in 1979. As a symbolic site of the Rokugomanzan culture unique to the Kunisaki Peninsula—where mountain worship and Buddhism have merged into a unified tradition—it has long served as a place of ascetic training. Stone Buddhist images carved into cliff faces and halls built within natural rock caverns create an atmosphere of profound mystery that endures to this day.