More than 1,250 wooden Buddhas can be seen only on the second Saturday of the month, from 13:00 to 16:00.
In the seventeenth century the wandering monk Enkū passed through here and carved two guardians more than three metres tall for the gate; from the leftover wood he made hundreds of small figures. In 1972, 1,024 of them turned up walled inside the pagoda. Today the temple shows more than 1,250, but only one afternoon a month: the second Saturday, from 13:00 to 16:00.
Arako Kannon, in full Kannon-ji, stands in Nakagawa Ward, the south-western district of Nagoya, and tradition dates its founding to 729. The two-storey pagoda in the grounds was rebuilt in 1536 (wood, three bays, a roof of thin shingles) and the municipality states that it is the oldest building in the city; it has been a national Important Cultural Property, the national designation for a building of note, since 1921. The temple is the funerary temple of the Maeda, the lords of nearby Arako Castle, and according to the ward's page it holds about a quarter of all the Enkū sculptures that survive in Japan. It is also one of the four Kannon of Owari, the temples that in the old calendar protect Nagoya on its four sides.
ℹ️ The grounds are open 7:00–17:00 and you can walk round them without paying. The Enkū sculptures, however, can be seen only on the second Saturday of the month, from 13:00 to 16:00, for 1,000 yen, free for children below elementary school age: during those three hours volunteers from the association that studies them act as guides and give a free wood-carving lesson with limited places, and groups of ten people give notice in advance. On any other day you see the pagoda and a closed gate, so if you are coming for the statues, time your trip for the second Saturday. It is ten minutes’ walk from Arako Station on the Aonami Line.
🚉 Arako · 8 min walk
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