The mountain Raizan and the Sennyoji temple lying on the mountainside – I feel strangely drawn to this place, especially so when it is raining. There is a calm, a stillness that is accentuated in the rain, and the colors, the sounds, the smells feel like they come from a magical place beyond this world. Was it not for an energetic son I would walk around the temple grounds for hours taking photos, or sit on the wooden deck just being. But everything has its time, and at this point in our lives it is curiosity time for toddlers (although I try to get some photography in as well).
One of the perks of visiting Raizan in the rain, is that there are so few other people visiting. When we went there the other Saturday, I felt like we had the whole place to ourselves, and our son took the chance to explore all the corners of the temple grounds. He walked around and looked at the statues, the buildings, the little waterfall and the washing basins. Inside the temple buildings we saw old paintings and objects. The legend has it that the temple was founded in the year 178 by an Indian monk, and the main buildings standing today dates back to the 1800th century so there is a lot of history to experience. In the main hall there is an almost 5 meters tall wooden Buddha statue, past the main hall there are 500 small stone statues of Arhats, Buddha disciples, standing on the mountain side, in the courtyard there is a 400 years old maple tree that is very popular to see in autumn, and in the garden there is a pond shaped after the Chinese character meaning heart.
A lot of things to see inevitably means a lot of questions. But instead of whispering questions to me, and me having to say that I do not know the answer but also would really like to know, this time our son got his curiosity satisfied by a monk he got to talk to. Our son happily asked all sorts of questions about things he had seen, like the Buddha-statues, Ojizo-san and the five hundred Arhat stone statues. What is that statue? What is depicted on the map hanging on the wall? What is this object lying on the table?
And when the wind swept in through the open Japanese sliding doors, sweeping down a noticeboard from a table, our son made sure to walk over and put it back up. My wife and I looked at each other and silently agreed that our darling son is really starting to grow up.