Otagi Nenbutsuji

This guide to Otagi Nenbutsuji in Kyoto traces a temple's long run of disasters: founded in the 1760s, washed away by a flood, damaged in medieval fighting, and finally dismantled and hauled to the foot of Mount Atago in 1922 just to save what was left of it. It follows Kocho Nishimura, a priest who arrived in 1955 with years of experience carving Buddhist statues, and the unusual decision he made about who would fill his half-ruined temple with new ones. You'll hear how, over about a decade, ordinary visitors who had never held a chisel ended up shaping the hillside you're standing on. Look closely at the moss-covered figures for the odd, everyday objects some of them hold.