It’s one thing to expect see the giant bronze Buddha statue at Kōtoku-in in Kamakura, but there was a moment of time, while I looked out the window and I was shocked to see a huge white head in the middle of trees near Ōfuna Station.
Was it my eyes? Did I see that correctly? What temple is that?
Having passed by this station a few times, I was even more shocked and surprised by what I saw that I had to ask a few Japanese high school kids that told me it’s Ōfuna Kannon (Byakue Kannon). Or probably known to many as bodhisattva Kannon.
The construction of the temple began in 1929 by the Soto School of Zen and the outline of the statue was created in 1934. The creation of the Temple and Statue would continue via the Ofuna Kannon Society and construction began in 1953 and the temple was completed in 1960.
The statue’s construction was performed entirely by hand and no concrete trucks were used. The statue is 1900-tons of reinforced concrete.
Around the temple are stones carried from ground zero of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which commemorate the souls of those who died from the atomic bomb blasts.
But there is something about this statue that I feel I have visit the location, so another one to add on the bucket list and will post again after I visit the area.
