One Thousand Two Hundred Rakan

 

Rakan, or Arhats, usually come in groups of 500.

Said to be the disciples of the Buddha, many temples will have a full 500 statues, but many more will have a much smaller number.

Otagi Nembutsuji, a temple outside the main part of Arashiyama near Kyoto has an amzing 1200 of them.

Even more amazing is that they were only started to be made in 1981, part of something called the Showa Rakan Carving Project.

The head priest was a sculptor, and he encouraged visitors to the temple to carve small, simple, rakan statues.

He encouraged people to freely express themselves in the carving, and so the vast majority of the carvings are quite different from each other.

What is also surprising is how quickly moss and lichen begin to grow on the statues, thanks to Japans wet climate.

Previously I posted on the temple, its history, and the other deities and statues to be seen.

Next I will post some close-up portraits of some of the most distinctive rakan.

If you are using a computer to view this you can simply click on the "rakan" tag at the bottom of the post.

If you are using a phone, tough, because many features like that are not available....

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Otagi Nembutsuji Temple Arashiyama

 

Otagi Nembutsuji Temple is now located in a narrow valley just outside Arashiyama, usually a bit too far for most tourists to walk to.

However, it was originally located on the other side of Kyoto and was only moved here in 1922.

The original temple was founded in 766 and was built in the Higashiyama district, not too far from Gion.

It later became a Shingon temple but was completely destroyed when the Kamo River flooded.

It was restored as a Tendai temple.

It fell into disrepair and was restored several more times.

In 1922 what remained of the temple, mostly its Nio Gate, Main Hall, and Jizo Hall, were relocated to the current site.

During the War it once again became uninhabited.

Its final restoration began in 1955.

In 1980, a ten-year repair and renovation of the Niomon began.

The following year the project that has become the symbol of the temple began. The head priest, a sculptor himself, started teaching visitors how to carve Rakan statues.

Now more than 1200 have been completed and can be seen throughout the temple grounds...

They deserve a couple of posts which will come later...

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Togakuji Temple Revisited

 

Togakuji is a Soto Zen temple that predates Matsue Castle a little, but was moved to the Okudani area of Matsue when the castle was built.

After visiting the garden at Manjuji Temple,  I stopped in here on my way back towards downtown.

I had hoped to view the garden behind the main hall, but once again the priest was busy with guests, so will have to try again next time....

The short approach to the temple is flanked by small but effective raked sand gardens with pine trees and a couple of small Jizo statues....

The rakan hall contains statues of the 500 rakan or arhats.....

For the history of the temple, please refer to my earlier post. with some photos of the same things, but different day, different light, different camera, different mood.....

The previous post in this series on the gardens and other sights of Matsue and Izumo was on the garden of Manjuji Temple.

if you would like to subscribe by email just leave your email address in the comments below. It will not be published and made public. I post new content almost everyday, and send out an email about twice a month with short descriptions and links to the last ten posts.