Autumn Leaves at Eikan-do Temple

The season of autumn leaves has come! Although the coronavirus hasn’t gone away in Japan yet, people are being careful about it by wearing masks, cleaning hands frequently with alcohol spray, and keeping distance from each other so we can go out to see beautiful autumn leaves and enjoy the moment. Kyoto has a lot of places to see amazingly beautiful autumn leaves and their colors especially match with the atmosphere of the temple gardens.

To enjoy the scenery in autumn and refresh myself, I visited one of the best places in the city the other day. Let me talk about it now.

The name of the place is Eikan-do Zenrin-ji Temple. It is located in the east part of Kyoto and is famous for autumn leaves. There are more than 3,000 maple trees in the precincts, so maple trees are everywhere here.

The temple is famous for two things. One, as I mentioned before, is autumn leaves. The other is the main Buddhist statue. It is the “Looking Back Amida Buddha.” In general, Buddhist statues are looking straight ahead, but the Looking Back Amida Buddha is looking left.

According to the story, about 930 years ago, early in the morning in February, when a monk named Yokan was walking around the statue while chanting a sutra as part of his training, the statue in the altar suddenly came down and started walking ahead of him. Yokan was so surprised that he was speechless for a moment. So the statue looked at him and said, “Yokan, you are slow. Stop dawdling.”

The statue of Amida has been looking back since then.

This statue may be telling us to look at ourselves and consider whether we are doing things right. We need to reflect on ourselves sometimes. Also, we should look back and wait for people who are slower to finish what they are doing. I am having a tough time with work now because of the coronavirus, and I am less mindful than I used to be. But the statue with its merciful face reminded me of this important lesson.

I don’t have a picture of the statue because no photos are allowed inside the temple, so please enjoy these pictures of autumn leaves I took at the temple instead!!

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