Key #30: A Mountain Of A God

As a rule, Japan is all about subtleties and nuances, and it has an uncanny ability to bring together seemingly incompatible things and balance them in harmony. Be it art or spiritual beliefs, social infrastructure or simply daily life and interpersonal communication, there is always more than meets the eye. However, even in Japan, there are exceptions - such as Daisen Kofun or the Giant Buddha on the above picture. There is nothing subtle or nuanced about those particular objects. Ironically, the exceptions still prove the rule by literally providing more than meets the eye - simply because they are so huge that no naked eye can see the whole of them, whatever the vantage point is.

The Buddha is located in (or, strictly speaking, above) the Nanzoin Temple in a small countryside town of Sasaguri. Both the temple grounds and the town are quite interesting in their own right, the latter being the starting point of a popular pilgrimage. The area offers plenty of picturesque views

playful structures

and imagination-stirring shapes. 

The temple adds some hair-raising sculptures

and even a self-advertising shop window featuring “maneki neko” (the “beckoning cat”) - yet another Japanese cat, and the one most sought after, at that, because he is in charge of wealth and good fortune.

In most places, such an abundance would more than suffice for a “full meal” but, for Nanzoin, it serves as a mere "appetizer" - because of how overwhelming the “main dish” is. Half-a-soccer-pitch long (41 meters) and taller than many multistoried buildings (11 meters), the statue dominates the area, absolutely dwarfs everything and everybody in sight, and draws all the attention. While all the numbers are ready at hand, and pictures abound - in other words, there are plenty of means to share the story - the experience of being so close to that mountain of a god remains highly personal and subjective. It may uplift some and scar others. What it's unlikely to do is leave anybody indifferent…