20‏/04‏/2016

Jyomyo-In Temple in Yanaka

Home to 84,000 Buddhist saints

By Peter Sidell

Community writer

Rows and rows of weathered statues

This statue is lording it over the rest

This part of the temple is like a parade ground

The statues face in every direction

This one is aloof by himself

Some statues are large, some small like these

It looks like the statues are occasionally replaced

Alone among the greenery

Different sizes of Jizo, back to back

Lined up in tiers by the wall

The temple is conveniently labeled

Between Ueno Park and Yanaka Cemetery, Jyomyo-In is a Buddhist temple notable for its ranks of jizo, statues of the guardian saint of children. There are so many that it's said there are eighty-four thousand of them, and while that seems implausible (I didn't count them), there are certainly a lot. Most of them are lined up in rows, ancient and weathered, lending to that part of the temple the hushed air of a cemetery, the only sound the leaves rustling in the wind.

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Peter Sidell

By Peter Sidell

Community writer

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