Nokogiriyama has to offer more than just a great view! There’s also the Nihon-ji Temple (日本寺) complex which houses a big Buddha statue (Daibutsu).

As the largest pre-modern, stone-carved Daibutsu in Japan , it’s taller than the famous Buddha statues in Kamakura and Nara’s Todaiji . It’s in fact one of the largest Buddha statues in Japan. Nihon-ji Buddha is the seated image of Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of healing and medicine . 

Nihon-ji Temple, also known as “Kenkonzan Nihonji” . Since then the temple complex has been damaged and rebuilt several times. It’s considered to be the only temple in the Kanto region that was built by the order of the Emperor .

If you visit Mount Nokogiri you won’t just get a great view from above and see one of the largest Buddha statues in Japan, there are also about 1500 hand-carved statues of Rakan . 

Each of them is unique with its own facial expression and gesture! Many sculptures and facilities of Nihon-ji were damaged. Quite a few of the Rakan statues were beheaded at that time.

There are a lot of stairs, but there’s so much to discover, so I highly recommend you take your time there!