Nehanzo, reclining Buddhas, are the least common pose for statues of Buddha in Japan. At Nanzo-in temple in Sasaguri, Fukuoka, there is what is certainly the largest bronze Nehanzo in Japan.
Its dimensions are impressive. 41 meters long, and 11 meters high, it weighs about 300 tons, more than three times as heavy as the Great Buddha in Nara, it is among the biggest bronze statues of the world.
It was completed in 1995 to house some of the historical Buddhas ashes which had been donated to the temple from Myanmar, where Nehanzo are much more common.
Nehan means "nirvana", and statues of the reclining Buddha depict him at the moment of his death when he entered Nirvana.
There is a lot more to see at Nanzoin which I will post soon....
2023 EDIT. I remember reading not long before the Covid pandemic hit that Nanzoin had reacted strongly to industrial-scale tourism, specifically cruise ship tour groups, with some restrictions on visitors. Apparently, any group visit must be arranged in advance, but for individual visits, there are restrictions on what clothing is allowed, and strangely that visible tattoos are not allowed.
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