Two strikes of a temple bell announce the beginning of a chant, and the presiding priest begins to intone the first line of Shinran Shonin’s Shoshinge. Attendees and other priests join in the second line, filling the worship hall with a mix of voices. At other times the main worship hall resounds with worshippers reciting the name of Amida Buddha, namo amida butsu, as a response of gratitude after hearing a reading from a letter of Rennyo Shōnin or a particularly moving Dharma talk. These are some of the quotidian sounds of a Buddhist temple in the Jōdō Shinshū sect which, while ubiquitous in presence, may not engender commonality in meaning or interpretation. Following recent insights by Yun Emily Wang, this paper will consider the temple as a “site of multiple, competing interpellations” generated by the multiple levels of attendance and engagement, from priest to lay, tourist, or even researcher (2025). Based on fieldwork at Buddhist temples in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, I argue that sounds and music heard generate new modes of being for participants through their meditative, participatory, and transformative potential for priests and lay. While sonic practice may be shared by all in attendance, the meanings, applications, and expectations of those sounds for each person are varied. Hearing the temple in this way, ethnomusicologists can further nuance the discussion of Japanese religious engagement int the twenty-first century, showing sound as fundamental to the persistance of religious teachings in Japan.