Tōno sekibutsu and the smiling Buddha

The ‘laughing Buddha’ has its date, 1299, carved on a boulder by the roadside.

You walk two kilometres between Gansen-ji and Jōruri-ji and the figures stand on boulders by the roadside, not inside an enclosure: the most visited is an Amida triad from 1299 with the central face tilted upwards, which people here call ‘the laughing Buddha’. Others bear carved dates ranging from 1263 to 1342, and one is carved on two opposite faces of the same boulder.

In the Tōno district, between Jōruri-ji and Gansen-ji, from the late Kamakura period to the Muromachi period many Buddhist figures were carved directly into the living rock, the magaibutsu: they served people on the road as a place to rest and as waymarkers. The five main ones, as the municipality of Kizugawa lists them: | sculpture | what it is | carved date | |---|---|---| | 藪の中三尊 | Amida-Kannon-Jizō triad | 1263 | | ミロクの辻 | Miroku in incised lines | 1274 | | わらい仏（阿弥陀三尊磨崖仏）| Amida triad, ‘the laughing Buddha’ | 1299 | | カラスの壺 | Amida and Jizō on the two faces of the same boulder | 1342 | | 藤谷の磨崖仏 | a nyorai | not given |

ℹ️ There is no ticket and there are no opening hours. The municipality gives the route as about two kilometres and forty minutes of walking, not counting visiting time: it becomes half a day if you stop to look for all of them, and the signposting is that of a country road. ⚠️ The direction of the route, the change in height and the surface of the path are not stated by an official source: anyone worried about slopes should ask beforehand. It combines naturally with Gansen-ji (K203), which is at one end.

🚉 浄瑠璃寺 · 15 min walk

Sources: city.kizugawa.lg.jp

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