お寺

Pattern visualization

Examples

1. 京都には古いお寺がたくさんあります。▶ —
   Kyoto has many old temples.
2. お寺で座禅を体験した。▶ —
   I tried zazen at the temple.

Collocations

Mnemonic

Otera (お寺) is a Japanese Buddhist temple. O- is the polite / familiar prefix; 寺 (tera or ji) means temple. Splits against jinja (神社, Shinto shrine): otera = Buddhism (transmitted via Baekje in the 6th century, Asuka period), jinja = native Shinto. Japan's shinbutsu shuugou (1000-plus year syncretism) coexisted until the 1868 shinbutsu bunri (Meiji separation decree). Many households still maintain both a kamidana (Shinto home altar) and a butsudan (Buddhist family altar). Kyoto has 1,600+ temples, Nara 1,500+ — old capitals anchored on temple infrastructure. Sect map: Joudo (Honen), Joudo Shinshuu (Shinran), Zen (Rinzai, Soutou, Oubaku), Shingon (Kuukai), Tendai (Saichou), Nichiren. Foreign visitors flock to zazen (seated meditation) and shakyou (sutra copying) — Myoushin-ji and Kennin-ji in Kyoto run English programs. The kanji 寺 (sì in Chinese, jeol in Korean) is shared; the Southeast-Asian Buddhist transmission split is a separate map.

Quick check

1. Otera (お寺) vs jinja (神社) split?

   • Otera = Buddhism (Baekje 6th c.), jinja = Shinto (native Japan)
   • Both Buddhist
   • Both Shinto
   • Both foreign-origin