🙏BIG BUDDHA AMONGST THE COSMOS😇

Nara is one of the best places in Japan to see cosmos, and in recent years Hannya-ji (般若寺) has taken great efforts to make itself one of the best places in Nara to enjoy the flowers...
...that, and a very unusual soda🥤

#Japan #コスモス #奈良

cosmos flowers-
old storehouses along with
an old canal
秋ざくら倉庫とともに運河古る
-Akatsuka Gogyō (赤塚五行).

🤔I was going to mute the video, but I think this is a more honest glimpse of how noisy popular sites get😑

#Hannyaji #Nara #cosmos #般若寺 #奈良 #コスモス

It seems that Ekan (慧灌 'Hyegwan'), a monk from the Korean kingdom of Goguryeo, first founded a monastic complex here in 629.
Originally known as Hannyadai (般若台), in 735 Emperor Shōmu renamed the temple Hannya-ji (般若寺) after gifting it a copy of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra.

#Nara #奈良 #慧灌

Nao-san has not quite lost her mind...

Close to the temple's main hall is a large rock known as 'kanman-ishi' (カンマン石), on which stands an image of Fudō Myōō (不動明王). It is said those who place their back and bellies against the rock will be granted good health.
#奈良 #Nara

Fudō Myōō (不動明王) is the wrathful deity of Buddhist wisdom. With his sword, Acala cuts through deluded and ignorant minds, with his rope he binds those ruled by their violent passions, and with flames he consumes the evil of the world.

His rock symbolizes unshakeable peace.
#不動明王 #FudoMyoo #Acala

Forty years ago Hannya-ji (般若寺) was rather down on its luck, its grounds gone to seed. The then abbot came across a single cosmos, and so started researching the flowers. Little by little he began to transform the precints, and now 150,000 cosmos plants grow here!
#般若寺

Cosmos have helped more than a few Nara temples turn their fortunes around.

Abe Monju-in (安倍文殊院) creates a cosmos maze for guests to enjoy each autumn.
The temple started life as Sūke-ji (崇敬寺) in 645, founded by Abe-no-Kurahashimaro (安倍倉梯麻呂).
#cosmos #コスモス

It's now estimated that close to 150,000 cosmos plants grow in Hannya-ji's (般若寺) precincts😲
You can spot around 30 varieties🧐

The temple's 12.6m tall, 13-storied stone pagoda is the tallest in Japan. It was created in 1253 by Igyomatsu (a stone mason from Southern Sung).

In 1185 Taira-no-Shigehira (平重衡) was executed by Tōdai-ji and his head nailed to Hannya-ji's torii.
Five years earlier he had led an attack on the powerful temples of Nara. After one of his men accidentally started a fire, he simply stood at Hannya-ji and watched the city burn.

A small store behind Hannya-ji, cashing in on Nara's famous daibutsu (大仏), has created a 'Great Buddha soda'. The big ball of hair is cotton candy, which can be eaten or used to sweeten the (already sweet) drink🤪🥤

#般若寺 #Hannyaji #大仏 #Nara #奈良 #東大寺 #daibutsu

Hannya-ji is situated to the north of Tōdai-ji's Daibutsu-den and the Shōsō-in 'treasure house' (正倉院), at the top of a slope called Narazaka (奈良阪).
'Kyō-Kaidō' (京街道), a once-pivotal road before the temple, connected Kyōto (Yamashiro Province) and Nara (Yamato Province).
@camelliakyoto "by" as in "next to", or "by" as in "at the order of / at the hand of"?
@camelliakyoto Do you know who the little figure carved in the stone to the left of the rock is? A little apron has been tied around the rock, so it drew my attention!