Adashino Nenbutsu-ji, Buddhist temple in Saga Toriimoto, Kyoto, Japan.
Adashino Nenbutsu-ji is a Buddhist temple in Saga Toriimoto within Ukyō Ward in Kyoto and sits at the edge of the Sagano district. More than eight thousand small stone figures fill the grounds and stand in orderly rows between patches of moss and trees.
A monk transformed an outdoor place where unburied bodies lay in the eighth century into a memorial site for the nameless dead. Centuries later Meiji reformers arranged the scattered stone figures and created the orderly row system visible today.
The name refers to the site where travelers once stopped abruptly to say prayers for the unburied dead. Today visitors walk among the tightly grouped stone figures and experience this old practice as a visible reminder of past burial customs.
The grounds sit uphill from the central Sagano area and visitors reach them on foot after a twenty-minute walk through quiet neighborhoods and green paths. The route rises gently and requires comfortable shoes and some time to walk.
A brick stupa in the Indian style stands among the traditional wooden halls and serves as a storage place for bones. This structure differs clearly from the usual Japanese temple forms and draws eyes through its foreign silhouette.
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