Buddhist Forest: What Really Happens in a Japanese Sculpture Park That Fears Tourists

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Photos of this quaint park, filled with many stone sculptures, appear periodically on the Internet and are invariably accompanied by comments that this is a very scary place. The Japanese park (or rather, the forest, of which there are even two) is somewhat reminiscent of either a cemetery or the Chinese terracotta army. Nearby residents add fuel to the fire, assenting to tourists: they say, yes, all this is very creepy. In fact, the history of this place is not at all scary, but naive and romantic.

The idea of his whole life

The history of this unusual exhibition should start with the biography of its creator. His name is Mr. Furukawa. All his life, the Japanese was engaged in business, but at first his companies went bankrupt several times. Finally, the entrepreneur was lucky: he created a rather successful medical corporation and it enriched him.

And Mitsumi Furukawa was very fond of Chinese culture and was fanatically obsessed with the idea of Japanese-Chinese friendship. It was this fanaticism (which, of course, was not bad) prompted the businessman to open a theme park dedicated to the friendship of the two eastern peoples.

Furukawa chose a forest near the Jinzu River on the island of Honshu as a place for the implementation of his strange project. Here in the second half of the last century, international rowing competitions were held with the participation of teams from China, which seemed to the man very symbolic.

Mr. Furukawa called his park "Buddha's Forest" or "Buddha's Stone Village" and decided to erect at least 500 statues in this picturesque place, depicting arhats (Buddhist saints who have attained the highest degree of enlightenment), as well as the Buddha himself, and thus attract the attention of the Japanese on the ancient religion and culture of the neighboring state.

With this unusual request, the entrepreneur turned to a familiar Chinese sculptor Lu Ching Chao. This is how mysterious stone idols appeared on the banks of the river, brought here directly from China.

They are all completely different. Faces, facial expressions, clothes, postures - everything looks very realistic, and it seems that all these stone people look right into your soul.

To bring the idea to life (in particular, to engage in the installation of statues) Mitsumi Furukawa was helped by employees of his own corporation and colleagues from China, who had nothing against the idea of the brotherhood of two peoples. And then the entrepreneur decided to make another "forest of friendship": 800 meters from the group of Buddhist sculptures, he installed … 300 figures of these employees, taking most of the images from the collective photograph of the staff of his corporation.

But the reaction of the local prefecture was no less interesting: it appealed to all citizens who take an active part in any Japanese-Chinese projects with a proposal to send their photos for the production of their monuments and the subsequent placement of sculptures in the forest park next to the finished ones. There were a lot of people willing.

This time, the stone figures were created by Japanese craftsmen, and the prefecture took over the financing of the project. There are a total of 1290 statues housed here at the moment!

Furukawa passed away six years ago. According to his dying will, the last sculpture in this strange gallery was to be his own stone figure, and this desire was granted.

Tourists have absolutely nothing to fear

As the entrepreneur planned, the Buddha Forest (you can get to it by car along a narrow highway) has become a resting place for local Japanese and tourists. However, there are usually few visitors here, which is probably why this place seems gloomy and mysterious. However, if you know the prosaic and a little naive story of the creation of the park, all fear disappears as if by hand.

You can wander between the figures located in a picturesque lowland and reflect on many things: about the creator of the Buddha Forest, about the people who took part in this grandiose and partly utopian project, or about Buddhist culture.

Climbing the stairs located a little further away, the tourist enters the recreation area, in which the sign "Charitable institution of the Foundation of the Stone Buddha Forest" medical corporation flaunts. There is an old building built in the Japanese folk style, from the window of which you can see a picturesque view of the river and the dam. Staff can tell guests about the history of the park, and they can also treat guests to oolong tea for free. And since the Buddha Forest was conceived as a place of free rest, visitors who bring meat or sausages with them are given free charcoal for barbecue by the staff of the forest park.

By the way, despite the fact that the Japanese living in the prefecture are well aware of this story, in a conversation with foreigners, many prefer to pretend that the origin of the sculptures is very mysterious and that all these figures bring horror to the surrounding residents. It's so much more interesting!

Needless to say, the Japanese are a very original people. For example, they collected in one museum 300 disgusting exhibits, from which goosebumps.