1 of 1
Story summary
- Temple owners list historic temples for sale as congregations shrink.
- A 370-year-old temple on the Chita Peninsula is priced at 482 million yen (€2.66 million, US$3.01 million).
- About 17,000 of Japan’s roughly 77,000 temples lack full-time resident priests.
- Tomomi Iwayama revived the abandoned Ganshu-ji temple in Odawara, becoming its abbot.
- Iwayama financed the temple by selling graveyard plots, which can cost up to 100,000 yen annually.
