Photos: Nankou Oronain (as36… · CC BY-SA 3.0 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
About 1,200 stone rakan cover the hillside at Otagi Nenbutsu-ji, carved on the temple grounds between 1981 and 1991 by ordinary worshippers from across Japan, taught by the sculptor-restorer and head priest Nishimura Kōchō, after a typhoon had wrecked the temple.
Why it's unique
Japan has other large groups of rakan statues, at Kawagoe and in Ōita, so the claim does not rest on the number. It rests on who made them: ordinary worshippers, all taught by one sculptor-priest, carving on the temple grounds over a decade.
That is what you see on the hillside. Each carver's name is on the back of their statue, the expressions run from prayerful to laughing, and some hold the carver's hobby.
Before you go
The plan was 500 statues in five years; the target was met in about a year and requests kept coming, so 700 more were added, which is why the second batch is visibly smaller. Each carver's name is on the back of their statue, and the expressions run from prayerful to laughing, some holding the carver's hobby.
Travel writing is out of date: it is now ¥1,000 (children under 10 free), 9:00 to 16:00, and closed Wednesdays and Saturdays. The bus from Arashiyama runs about hourly; a taxi from JR Saga-Arashiyama is about 5 minutes.
