The Buddhist Stone Carvings in Isahaya are the sorts of places that only comes around once in a while and when it does you should grab it with both hands and hold on tight! It is one of those places that takes you hours to find but the end product is more than worth the effort put in to find it.
The Stone Carvings are interesting to say the least. I heard through a friend that there was this isolated place up in the mountainside of Isahaya that had literally hundred of Buddhist carvings. Quite a long drive and numerous wrong turns and the occasional asking of directions to the confused local on why a foreigner who isn't Buddhist would be searching for this place.
Finally I arrived at the entrance to the ravine and found the 'Gohyaku Rakan', known as the 500 Buddhist disciples which have been embedded in a rock face. They are relief carvings in the rocks to commemorate the 487 victims of the 1699 flood of Isahaya. The number of carvings are impossible to count in there entirety we just have to trust that there are 500 in total. The shapes, sizes and faces, features and style are all different and it is worthwhile to look carefully at each carving and identify each intricate and special individual feature.
An amazing site well worth a look or 2 or 3 or even 500! One could spend a good couple of hours here or even an afternoon looking at all the delicate and amazing details that has been carved into the rock wall. How many hours of pain staking effort it took to finish the job is beyond imagination, I just want to say thankyou to whoever completed this amazing works!
Have a look the Nagasaki Buddhist Stone Carvings on a map!
Please click on the pictures below to enlarge:
Even fat ugly ones are cute
Many shapes and sizes
Too many to count!
Fine detail
500 in all
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