Hasedera Temple

I was going to say this temple has a cool story but they all seem to have a cool story. So, here is this one, paraphrased of course. There as a big camphor tree in city of Hase. A munk stumbled across it and had two sculptures carve, two eleven-headed Kannon statues out of it. One for the temple in Nara and the other one was thrown into the sea with a prayer that it would reappear to save the people. (This seems like a big waste, but to each one their own) 15 years later, in 736, it washed ashore and like all sacred statues they built a temple to put it in. Oh wait, it gave off rays of light (that saved the people? this part of the story is unclear) Anyhow, this is that temple (cool beans) and the Kannon statue (which you can't take a picture of, sorry). 

The Kannon statue is one of the largest wooden statues in Japan. A little over 30 ft tall, (that's a lot of wood. That tree had to be humongous to make two of these bad boys). Kannon, BTW is the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy. I'm getting a head of myself. We had a few flights of stairs to climb before we made it up to the temple. This is Japan after all you have to have stairs.

On our way up we came across the Jizo-do Hall. There are thousands of little Jizo statues standing in long rows. They are to comfort the souls of miscarried and deceased children. Jizo is a Buddhist saint who is believed to protect children.

My favorite were the cluster of these three little Jizo. Aren't they cute!?!

A little farther up, there is the Kyozo. It's a place for storing Buddhist scriptures. 

Here is the good part, (and may I just say one more time how clever the Japanese are) it is said if you spin the Rinzo once, you receive the same amount of virtue as when you recite the complete scriptures. 

Now...if I could just put the Book of Mormon in here and give it a good spin, I'd come to visit every day. :) 

This is the entrance into the Benten-kutsu Cave. Our phones were borderline dead at this point. I had to take this picture for my brother though. Living in Japan and being a semi-tall female there are times when I am inclined to duck my head to get through certain doorways, Torii gates, etc. My poor brother would live his life here bent in two. Love you, Toad!

One our way out we had to stop and give this cute little guy's cubby cheeks a rub for good luck!