Taishakuten Buddhist Temple in Shibamata, Tokyo, features an annexed Japanese garden and carved wooden panels on the exterior walls of the many buildings.
- Masahisa Takaki
- 8 hours ago
- 1 min read
There is a nice landscape Japanese garden for strolling around behind the Daikyakuden Guest House of the temple originally built in the 17th century. This garden, named Suikeien, was built at the beginning of the 20th century then improved in 1965 by Nagayama Rakuzan, a master landscape gardener in Tokyo. Present-time Suikeien garden was designed by him. The garden, the entire areal of 2,000 square meters, is surrounded by a meandering connecting corridor with a roof but no wall, so that visitors can appreciate it even on rainy days. As to the carved wooden panels, the best ones are seen on the zelkova exterior walls of Taishakudo Hall standing right in front of the Niomon main gate. A series of the sacred story stated in Hokekyo, a Buddhist scripture, is delicately carved on the thick zelkova panels by the top 10 woodcarvers in Tokyo at that time. It took more than 10 years to be completed.
As these sculptures are highly reputed, Taishakuten Temple is also called the temple of wood carvings.
