Sunday, August 16, 2020

Diverse statuary at Kosenji Temple


Kosenji Temple in Ebino, Miyazaki has a wide range of statues on display inside and out. Flanking the large Fudo MyoO statue were a pair of very stylized Tanuki statues, the one on the left being obviously male.Not sure of their relationship with Fudo though.


There were several "child-like" Jizo. Known as guardian of deceased children, many have this child-like appearance, but seems to me to be more a part of the general "kawaii" culture that is such a large part of contemporary Japanese culture....


There was a fairly standard statue of Kannon, a deity which has many forms. One forms sees young children around her, but here there were frogs.


The frog is called kaeru in japanese, which is also the same word for "return", so commonly frog statues are a kind of good luck charm for returning safely from a journey etc....


1 comment:

  1. I always think it refreshing to see the "anatomically correct" tanuki images in Japan. Their U.S. counterparts are deprived of the same parts!

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