Shrine or Temple? How to Tell Them Apart in Japan, and Why You Clap at Only One

Information as of October 2026.

I live in a small town in the countryside of Tohoku, and there are temples everywhere. On New Year’s Eve, you can hear the joya no kane, the temple bells that ring out the old year, from every direction. There’s a shrine within walking distance, too.

And yet, one day my son asked me something I couldn’t answer.

If a Japanese person gets confused, it’s only natural for a visitor to feel the same. So I looked into it properly. Here’s what I found.

How to tell a shrine from a temple

First, the big picture.

A shrine (jinja) is a place for the kami, the gods of Shinto, Japan’s old native religion. A temple (tera, or otera) is a place for Buddha and Buddhism.

Here’s how to tell them apart when you’re standing in front of one.

	Shrine (jinja)	Temple (otera)
Who is worshipped	Kami (Shinto gods)	Buddha
Entrance	Torii gate	Sanmon gate with a roof
Things you’ll see	Shimenawa rope, a bell to ring, komainu statues	Incense, Buddha statues, graves, a big bell
End of the name	-jinja, -taisha, -jingu, -gu	-ji, -in
How to pray	Bow twice, clap twice, bow once	Put your hands together quietly and bow

A few words from the table:

• Torii: the gate at the entrance of a shrine. Some are bright red (vermilion), some are plain wood or stone.
• Sanmon: the large gate with a tiled roof at the entrance of a temple.
• Komainu: a pair of guardian animal statues facing each other at the shrine entrance.
• Nirei nihakushu ichirei: bow twice, clap twice, bow once. The standard way to pray at a shrine.
• Gassho: putting your palms together in front of your chest.

If you’re not sure, the fastest check is: Is there a torii at the entrance? And how does the name end?

Why do you clap at shrines but not at temples?

Here’s the answer to my son’s question. This was the part that surprised me most.

Until the Meiji era (1868–1912), shrines and temples in Japan were mixed together.

People believed in the kami and Buddha at the same time. This is called shinbutsu shugo. It wasn’t unusual to find a temple inside a shrine’s grounds, or a Buddhist monk taking care of a shrine.

And back then, people prayed at shrines the same way they do at temples today: quietly, with their hands together, without clapping. Clapping, called kashiwade, was originally something the shrine priests did.

In the Meiji era, the government officially separated shrines and temples. But the way people prayed didn’t change overnight. Each shrine had its own style, and there was no nationwide standard.

Over a long time, through the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa eras, shrines slowly settled on “bow twice, clap twice, bow once.” It’s said that this became the common way for ordinary visitors only after World War II. Today it’s the standard way to pray at a shrine.

Temples, on the other hand, never had one set way to pray. Putting your hands together is common simply because people have always done it that way.

So here’s the answer I can finally give my son:

By the way, not every shrine claps twice. At Izumo Taisha in Shimane and Usa Jingu in Oita, the formal way is to clap four times.

In the end, “bow twice, clap twice, bow once” and “hands together” weren’t decided by the gods or by Buddha. They’re manners that people built up over time.

A religious studies scholar has written that clapping at a temple “can’t simply be called bad manners,” and that “what matters is praying from the heart.” I think that’s true.

But still. If you clap at a temple, it’s a little embarrassing. Someone nearby might quietly tell you, “We don’t clap at temples.” Your feelings matter most, of course. But in Japan, fitting in with the way things are done in that place matters just as much.

If you know ahead of time “this is what we do here,” you don’t have to worry about getting it wrong. Then you can put your whole heart into your prayer.

What about Inari shrines?

Japan has one more kind of place you’ll probably see: Inari shrines, often called oinari-san. They’re the ones with rows and rows of red torii gates and white fox statues.

There’s a lot to say about Inari shrines, so I’ll write about them in another guide.

Thank you for respecting the “air” of Japan

One last thing.

I sometimes see visitors from abroad praying at shrines and temples. How to use the temizu, whether to clap or not… I’m sure a lot of it is confusing.

You don’t have to be perfect from the start. If you’re not sure, just do what the people around you are doing. Even I still get confused sometimes. (・ω<)

Quick summary: shrine or temple

When things go wrong

Cheat sheets you can use right away

1. Phrase card for shrines and temples

2. Shrine or temple, for your phone

FAQ

Read next

• Want to try another everyday Japanese manner? Read How to Use a Japanese Sento.
• Guides on how to pray at a shrine, at a temple, and at an Inari shrine are coming next.

---

I’m Japanese, and I write my drafts in Japanese with help from AI to turn them into natural English. The experiences here are my own. Some photos are AI-generated. If something is unclear, or things are different where you live, please leave a comment below. I’ll reply there, so the next reader can find the answer too.

I also write about Japanese manners in Japanese on note: note.com/enjoyjapan

---

Sources

• nippon.com, “Is clapping at a temple bad manners? A look at the history of shinbutsu shugo” (Japanese) https://www.nippon.com/ja/japan-topics/g02571/
• nippon.com, on the number of claps at shrines such as Izumo Taisha and Usa Jingu (Japanese) https://www.nippon.com/ja/views/b05207/
• AJALT, “Shrines and temples” (how to pray at each, Japanese) https://www.ajalt.org/file/jinja.pdf
• President Online, on how “bow twice, clap twice, bow once” spread from the Meiji to the Showa era (Japanese) https://president.jp/articles/-/89498