Matsuo-dera

Temple · Osaka

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In short

The temple describes itself as Japan’s oldest sacred site for warding off misfortune, and the only temple of prayer of yakujo.

The main hall of Matsuo-dera in Izumi.
KENPEI / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Quick facts

Address
2168 Matsuoderacho, Izumi, Osaka

About this place

Matsuo-dera is in Izumi, Osaka. The temple records itself as Japan’s oldest sacred site for warding off misfortune and as the only temple of prayer of yakujo. Purification and prayer against misfortune are performed here, and it also offers memorial rites for dolls and guidance for various forms of practice.

Origin and history

Matsuo-dera is in Izumi, Osaka.

The temple records itself as Japan’s oldest sacred site for warding off misfortune, and as the only temple of prayer of yakujo.

Purification and prayer against misfortune are performed here.

What it is locally associated with

  • Power spotProtection & Safety

    Japan’s oldest site for warding off misfortune

    The temple records itself as Japan’s oldest sacred site for warding off misfortune and as the only temple of prayer of yakujo.

    documented history
  • What people do here

    Purification and prayer

    Purification and prayer against misfortune are performed here.

    documented history

What this temple writes about itself puts two claims in one line. That it is Japan’s oldest sacred site for warding off misfortune. And that it is the only temple of prayer of yakujo. Age, and singularity — two different kinds of claim side by side, and the second is the narrower of the two.

What it does is purification and prayer against misfortune. Other places on this list also offer the warding off of misfortune; not many stack "oldest" and "only" on top of each other in naming it.

Of this temple’s founding and its principal image, the page that answered says nothing. So neither does this one.

Claims and evidence levels 2
  • Matsuo-dera records itself as Japan’s oldest sacred site for warding off misfortune and the only temple of prayer of yakujo. documented history
  • Purification and prayer against misfortune are performed at the temple. documented history

Related guides

  • How to visit a shrine or temple in JapanThe country-wide basics: purifying at the water basin, the two-bows-two-claps-one-bow form at shrines, and what temples do instead.
  • What a "power spot" actually isA modern Japanese coinage, not a traditional religious category. Where the word came from, what it does and does not claim, and why this site uses it anyway.
  • Shrine or temple?A shrine is Shinto and a temple is Buddhist, and you can usually tell at the gate. Why the line is cleaner on paper than on the ground, and what a government order in 1868 has to do with it.
  • Omamori, ema, omikuji and goshuinThe four things you are most likely to receive, write, draw or be given at a shrine or temple, what each is actually for, and the one of them people most often get wrong.

Sources

  1. 松尾寺 — Matsuo-dera (accessed 2026-08-15)

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