JapanNewbie

Kawagoe – 500 Statues of Rakan

Posted on 28. May, 2008 @ 1:03 pm by harvey in Tokyo, Travel Views: 778

I left Japan from Tokyo, so decided to take a trip to get out of the city before flying back to the United States.

I went to Kawagoe in Saitama prefecture. Kawagoe is only about a 40 minute train ride from Ikebukuro on the Seibu-Tojo Line, so it is possible to leave in the morning and return home by dark.One of the historical sites there is the 500 Statues of Rakan (五百羅漢) at the Kitain Temple (喜多院) site.

Though each statue is small, it was very impressive walking into this area and first seeing the multitude of statues. According to the sight-seeing flier, there are actually 540 of them!

Upon closer inspection it will be clear that each statue is completely different, and they all have expressions so detailed that they literally seem to come to life. The picture above is the most famous statues. The old men appear to be talking.

You can see what appears to be a rib cage coming through on a lot of the statues. Were the monks fasting? The statues are of disciples of Buddha, so I suppose that is the case.Rumor has it that if you feel each statue at night until you find one that is warm and then mark the spot, if you come back again in the daytime you will have found the statue that most resembles yourself.I didn’t stick around until darkness to find out…

I’m enjoying photography!

- Harvey