500 Characters Carved in Stone

The first row of over 55 rakan (Buddhist disciples)

     Before I show you some very cool pictures (all taken by me), let me give a little background here (with information not original to me.  (I'm not a Buddhist scholar, after all.)

       In Buddhism, as in other religions, there are saints and disciples. Jesus had twelve disciples, Buddha is said to have had ten in his "innermost circle, though it's said that 500 gathered after his death to establish the Buddhist "monkhood."

       Anyway, here in Japan these holy persons  are called "rakan."  The usual English transcriptions of the original language are arhat, arahat, or arahant.   You can get into complicated theological explanations about whether these folk  were those who actually attained Buddhahood or were simply saintly enough to be well on their way. However, an elaborate explanation isn't necessary to appreciate what I saw last weekend, but if you want a good one, check out this link:  http://www.unf.edu/~clunberr/Lunberry/Rakan.html

          As that writer, Dr. Clark Lunberry has indicated, much of the charm of a collection of old hand-carved rakan statues is stumbling upon them by accident, which is exactly what we did last weekend.  Hubby David and I were over in the neighboring city of Kawagoe (as opposed to the town of Ogawa-machi) having breakfast.  Then we decided to take in some of the really historical sites of that former castle town.  So we hopped on the loop tourist bus and disembarked at Kitain (Temple of Much Happiness), a charming, very photogenic temple with a long and important history.  Despite it being a lovely early spring Sunday afternoon, there were few people there and lots of English-capable goodwill guides politely assaulted us with maps, advice, and offers of help.  They all seemed a bit disappointed when we weren't quite "foreign" enough, but that's a story for another day.

       Anyway, a glimpse through a gate showed a vast collection of carved statues.  At first I thought it was a graveyard, but the English explanation said this: 

 There are actually 540 of these statues representing the disciples of Buddha. They were carved between 1782 and 1825 with no two statues alike. It is said that if you feel among the statues in the dead of night you will find one that is warm. Mark it, come back during the day, and you will see it is the statue most resembling yourself.

Pssst!  Lemme tell you about that guy over there!

   Well, that isn't going to happen, considering that you need to buy a ticket to get in, but it's a nice legend anyway.

Oh, boy -- my head sure does ache.

Oh, woe is me!  

         At first glance, this fellow looked like he was ripping out his own heart.  But then I realized that he's actually showing us that he has the Buddha living within his chest.  He seems pretty happy about it and not at all shy about showing it to all comers.

      And this green, mossy fellow?  Well, he was 'waaay ahead of his time, making the "V-sign" or "peace sign" long before it became the thing to do when someone is capturing your image (albeit usually by camera).  And like so many little kids who are getting photographed, he knows you're supposed to make a "V-sign," but he isn't quite sure yet exactly where or how to flash it.

    Well, given a few more centuries, maybe he'll figure it out. . . .