Sanjusangendo

In a city with well over 3000 temples and shrines, it was rather remarkable that Cindy and I only visited one.  We did walk by many, but we mainly spent our time wandering the old streets.  We did however, go to Sanjusangendo.  Its real name is Rengeo-in, well known for its 1001 statues of Kannon, the goddess of mercy.  The temple itself was built in 1164, destroyed by a fire and was rebuilt a century later.

In the center of the temple sits a large wooden statue of a 1000 armed Kannon, that is flanked on each side by 500 statues of human sized Kannons, standing in 10 rows.  Together they make for a awesome sight.

The Japanese believe the 1000 armed Kannon are equipped with 11 heads to better witness the suffering of humans, and with 1000 arms to better help them fight the suffering.  The actual statues have only 42 arms each, but, subtract the two regular arms and multiply by the 25 planes of existence to get the full thousand.  (Or so they believe)

I was not allowed to take photographs inside the hall, so I took some from their website to give you an idea.

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The outside was beautiful, I am really starting to love Japanese architecture.

Selfie

So if anyone wants to go to Kyoto, I would highly recommend...it gives you a glimpse into a world truly surreal...

Thanks for visiting Cindy!  We were thrilled to have you come, and so so sad to see you go!