Injoji Temple (Senbon Enmado Hall)

This temple has stood near Kyoto's old northern burial grounds since the 11th century, marking what was once the edge of the city and the boundary between the living and the dead. The main hall holds a 2.4-meter statue of Enma, the Buddhist judge of the dead, carved in 1488, flanked by a judgment reader with a scroll listing every mortal deed and a record taker. These statues are displayed on the 16th of each month, Enma Day, when a memorial service is held. Because Injoji equates Enma with the bodhisattva Jizo, hundreds of Jizo statues stand throughout the grounds, many centuries old, excavated from the road that once led to the burial site.