A thousand statues
Golden rows.
Zairon — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Zairon — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bamse — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Unknown authorUnknown author — Public domain · Ismoon (talk) 16:56, 12 May 2021 (UTC) — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Mti — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Mti — CC BY-SA 3.0
A Buddhist temple in Higashiyama, officially Rengeō-in, founded in 1164 by the samurai and statesman Taira no Kiyomori for the cloistered Emperor Go-Shirakawa. Its name means «Hall of Thirty-three Bays», after the spaces between the pillars of its hall. Its great feature is its extraordinarily long main hall, dating from 1266 and a National Treasure. Inside stands an astonishing array of statues: a thousand standing figures of the thousand-armed Kannon in tiered, gold-glinting rows, around a large seated Kannon, guarded by twenty-eight attendants and by Fūjin, god of wind, and Raijin, god of thunder, all National Treasures, most from the Heian and Kamakura periods. Admission is about 600 yen; it opens 8:30-17:00 from April to mid-November and 9:00-16:00 the rest of the year, per visitor guides. Photography is not allowed inside the hall, and shoes come off at the entrance.
Golden rows.
Wind and thunder.
From 1266.
Higashiyama, eastern Kyoto, near the National Museum
No, photography is not allowed in the hall of a thousand Kannon statues, and shoes come off at the entrance. Admission is about 600 yen per visitor guides.
