Sanjūsangen-dō Temple, Kyoto 2016

Saturday was our last day in Japan, but we decided to go back to Kyoto and sneak in one more temple. The Sanjūsangen-dō (三十三間堂) Temple is awesome. The temple contains 10000 life-size statues of the Thousand-Armed Kannon, and one huge statue of the Thousand-Armed Kannon. In front of all these are 28 statues of guardian deities. This is such a crazy description that the pictures make more sense.

Kevin and I in front of the main hall.

Gardens at Rengeo-in

Gardens at Rengeo-in

The gate wall

The bell that we're not supposed to ring

More gardens and worship areas

Natural springs for worshipper to cleanse

An English-speaking tour guide said that a single one of these is a major work of art. But here the artist has made 1000 of them by hand and put them all in the same place.

The 1000 life-size thousand-armed Kannon statues, and some of the guardian statues

The huge thousand-armed Kannon

Sadly, now it was time to go home!