Gamman Ga Fuchi

Futarasan | Gamman Ga Fuchi | Rinnoji | Toshougo

I really do not know what to make of this place. It is so unutterably peaceful after the bustle of the main touristy bits of Nikko; water crashing over rocks, and the leaves of the trees rustling in the breeze. All along the path winding its way along the ravine are thousands of these quaint little Buddha statues covered in moss seeming to indicate a certain age if not permanence, yet rather bizarrely clad in the equivalent of schoolboy woollies...

They say you cannot count the number of statues and one of their number (actually all of them as far as I can make out) smiles benignly, but patronisingly as if to reprimand those who attempt to do so.

That's the trouble with Buddhism; you just never can tell if it is all sublime and ethereal or if they are just taking the piss.