Nokogiriyama Nihonji Temple
Main Image Tokai 1,500 Rakan (Group of 1,553 Stone Arhat Statues) Category Other
Impression TagsDepthMysteryStillness
DescriptionThe Tokai 1,500 Rakan of Nokogiriyama Nihonji are a group of 1,553 stone Arhat statues spread across the temple grounds descending from Jigoku Nozoki toward the Daibutsu Plaza. According to Chiba Prefecture, the project was initiated in 1780 by the ninth abbot, Koga Guden, and the stone carver Ono Jingoro Eirei of Kazusa Sakurai and 27 disciples spent 21 years carving the figures. Made from Izu stone, no two faces are said to be alike. Some statues have lost their heads or bodies; Chiba Prefecture's official tourism site attributes such damage to the anti-Buddhist movement of the Meiji period and the Great Kanto Earthquake. The Arhats line rock caves and mountain paths, creating a distinctive landscape, and Nihonji officially lists them alongside the Great Buddha and Hyakushaku Kannon as major objects of worship. Visitors can walk among and worship the statues during viewing hours.
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