Nanzo-in () is a

Shingon Buddhist Shingon monks at Mount Koya is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asia, originally spread from India to China through traveling monks such as Vajrabodhi and Amoghavajra. Kn ...

temple in

Sasaguri, Fukuoka is a town in Kasuya District, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. As of 2016, the town has an estimated population of 31,213 and a population density of 800 persons per km2. The total area is 38.90 km2. The town has three railway stations, , , an ...

, Japan. It is notable for its bronze statue of a reclining Buddha, said to be the largest bronze statue in the world.

History

Gate of Nanzoin Temple in Sasaguri, Kasuya, Fukuoka

Nanzo-in was originally located on

Mount Kōya is a large temple settlement in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan to the south of Osaka. In the strictest sense, ''Mount Kōya'' is the mountain name ( sangō) of Kongōbu-ji Temple, the ecclesiastical headquarters of the Kōyasan sect of Shingon Budd ...

, but local anti-Buddhist authorities threatened to destroy the temple in 1886. Public outcry lead to a decade-long effort to have the temple transferred to

Sasaguri is a List of towns in Japan, town in Kasuya District, Fukuoka, Kasuya District, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. As of 2016, the town has an estimated population of 31,213 and a population density of 800 persons per km2. The total area is 38.90 k ...

. It was moved in 1899, under the leadership of Sasaguri priest, Hayashi Satoshiun. Nanzo-in is the main location among the 88 temples that make up the Sasaguri pilgrimage route, one of the three famous walking

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

s in Japan. Today, the temple and its surrounding grounds receive more than 1 million visitors annually.

Lottery

A chief priest of Nanzo-in once won the lottery after laying his ticket next to a statue of

Daikoku Daikokuten ( 大黒天) is a syncretic Japanese deity of fortune and wealth. Daikokuten originated from Mahākāla, the buddhist version of the Hindu deity Shiva, conflated with the native Shinto god Ōkuninushi. Overview Mahākāla in East Asia ...

. The temple claims that others who have made a similar effort have also won the lottery, bringing the temple associations with luck and lottery tickets.

Reclining Buddha

The reclining

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...

statue, known as either ''Nehanzo'' or ''Shaka Nehan'' ("Nirvana") is 41 meters long, 11 meters high, and weighs nearly 300 tons. The statue depicts Buddha at the moment of death, or entrance into

nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

. The interior holds ashes of Buddha and two Buddhist adherents,

Ānanda Ānanda (5th4th century BCE) was the primary attendant of the Buddha and one of his ten principal disciples. Among the Buddha's many disciples, Ānanda stood out for having the best memory. Most of the texts of the early Buddhist '' Sutta-Pi� ...

and Maudgalyayana. Those relics were a gift from Myanmar as thanks for the sect's donations of medical supplies to children in both

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

and

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

. In 1995, 1,300 monks from Myanmar and Nepal attended the unveiling of the reclining Buddha statue. Inside the sculpture, sand from each of the 88 shrines that make up the Shikoku pilgrimage are stored below bricks within a narrow hallway. Every year, hundreds of Buddhists come together to clean the statue using bamboo leaves tied to five-meter poles.

Funerals

Nanzo-in has 4,315 ''nokotsudo,'' places where bones of the deceased are stored. The temple has a non-traditional fee structure for housing remains that is open to all sects of Buddhism, as well as to

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...

remains. This is aligned with many other Buddhist temples that rely on a monthly fee for housing the bones of the deceased, which are then disposed of after a set period of time. Nanzo-in has one fee, which covers 200 years.

References

{{coord, 33.619839, N, 130.572935, E, region:JP_type:city, display=title Buddhist temples in Fukuoka Prefecture Buddha statues Tourist attractions in Fukuoka Prefecture Shingon Buddhism