Fudo at Nyoirinji

Fudo at Nyoirinji

Without planning to, I think I may have created the biggest collection of photos of Fudo Myoo statues on the internet.

All of these photos are from a single temple, Nyoirinji, located in Ogori, Fukuoka, that I visited while walking the Kyushu pilgrimage.

Much of what I post about on my blog are from my walks around Japan, mostly following Buddhist pilgrimages, so statues are obviously going to feature....

With fangs, flames, and wielding a sword, the deity Fudo Myo is striking and noticeable.

One of the reasons I take so many photos is because I am fascinated by diversity.... the same thing, whether a statue or not,  made by people, will be different in intriguing ways......

As well as Fudo Myo, other similar topics in my blogs would be Nio guardians, or komainu guardians....

Another reason for the diversity of statues of Fudo is that though he is considered to be a single deity, he manifests in a multitude of individual forms, with people worshipping specific statues with specific identities, for instance, one of the Fudo statues here at Nyoirinji is known as a "cancer-cutting Fudo".

The longest piece I wrote on these different aspects of Fudo is this post from the Sasaguri pilgrimage.

Fudo is not the main deity here at Nyoirinji, that would be Kannon, and the temple is most well known for its frogs!!!...... more on that next......

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