Nanzo-in () is a Shingon Buddhist temple in Sasaguri, Fukuoka, Japan. It is notable for its bronze statue of a

reclining Buddha A reclining Buddha is an image that represents Buddha lying down and is a major iconographic theme in Buddhist art. It represents the historical Buddha during his last illness, about to enter the parinirvana. He is lying on his right side, his h ...

, said to be the largest bronze statue in the world.

History

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 Bu ...

, 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. 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 travel, journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) w ...

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. 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 wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

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

nirvana Nirvana, in the Indian religions (Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism), is the concept of an individual's passions being extinguished as the ultimate state of salvation, release, or liberation from suffering ('' duḥkha'') and from the ...

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

Maudgalyayana Maudgalyāyana (), also known as Mahāmaudgalyāyana or by his birth name Kolita, was one of Gautama Buddha, the Buddha's closest disciples. Described as a contemporary of disciples such as Subhuti, Śāriputra ('), and Mahākāśyapa (), he i ...

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

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

and

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

. 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 , also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...

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