Adjacent to the Municipal Folk Museums was the Chokei-ji Temple. They had 500 Arhat statues. An Arhat is a person that has achieved a state of nirvana, spiritual enlightenment. Each statue was unique and we wondered if they were modeled after local folks.
The black kites loved the winds on the top of this hill
A modern cemetery
The first set of statues
A memorial stone
Rows and rows
Some have sashes on and some don't
A rock lantern is in between each statue
Moss on the bridge of the nose
Distinct facial features
Some had staffs
Standing and seated
I did not count all of them
A nice shady spot
This one was giving a lesson
A shovel or a rock chisel?
No one else was here during our visit
Off to one end was a different style of statue
A halo on this one
The temple was pretty simple
Apparently in 1799 a rich merchant challenged the locals to make 500 statues and in 50 years they did just that
Ohmmmmmm
