The sight of a frog temple in Japan is quite a rare one but this region possesses two of them, and I hopped on over to one of them to see if it was a ribbet-ing place or not!

Unwittingly I had chosen to visit the secondary temple which is said to be a bit smaller than the main one. Tentō station on the Chikuhō Main Line lies south of Iizuka station which is just under an hour east of Hakata in central Fukuoka. It’s then about 25 minutes on foot to the east of Tentō and on arrival at Shohoji Frog Temple I was greeted by the sight of many round-faced gold and silver-coloured frog statues

I visited this temple back in late-June last year but it was only recently that I discovered it was the slightly smaller sister temple of Nyoirinji Frog Temple (1728 Yokoguma, Ogori, Fukuoka-ken). That one looks a little more connected to civilisation and could’ve been a better option for getting to from my accommodation outside Tosu station in Saga Prefecture.

As it was though I was already out on a bit of a limb in the deeper parts of Fukuoka visiting the world’s largest bronze statue and Tagawagatoji station (home to one of the country’s limited platform zeros) so no time was probably lost or gained in going to the so-called lesser of the frog temples.

The temple itself is located at the top of a sizeable number of steps but it’s the journey  which is more enjoyable than the destination in this case.

The history of this frog temple dates back to some time during the Edo Period (1603-1868) if I can be so vague! It’s been known as Shohoji for about 80 years but is more commonly known these days as the frog temple due to the possession of approximately 2000 frog statues and figurines. I did not count them but that number does seem a little high!

It was a really wet day weather-wise but my time in Iizuka City was actually dry. It was also completly desserted which probably can’t be said for Nyoirinji Frog Temple.

It’s been said that soap bubbles are blown out of the mouth of some frogs but I sadly didn’t get to witness that.

There are naturally the usual things you’d expect to see at any Buddhist temple but there are also around 1000 wind chimes displayed. This is a similar number as at the main temple, and of course they make a cool sound when there’s a breeze which there definitely wasn’t when I was in town!

• Shohoji is located at 401 Hiratsune, Iizuka, Fukuoka-ken. The closest station is Tentō  on the Chikuhō Main Line.

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