Temple with Rabbit statue

There are about 300 temples in Sado Island, and one of them has a rabbit statue.

The name of the temple is “Chokokuji” and it’s based on “Hasedera” in Nara and has the same Chinese character.

In the middle of the island, it’s located and known as “Flower Temple” too because you can see a variety of flowers through 4 seasons as below.

●　From the beginning to the end of Apr ：Skunk cabbage
●　From the middle to the end of Apr：Rengekyou flower
●　From the end of Apr to the middle of May：Azalea
●　From the beginning to the middle of May：Peony
●　At the end of May：Satuki azalea
●　From the end of Jun to the end of Jul：Hydrangea
●　From the end of Jul to the middle of Sep：Hibiscus syriacus, Crape myrtle
●　From the middle of Sep to the beginning to Oct：cosmos
●　In Nov：Autumn leaves

Especially, it’s famous for peony, and you can enjoy more than 30 kinds of peonies and about 1000 Poeny flowers there from the beginning to the middle of May.

It’s said that Japanese great teacher named Saint Kobo(Kukai), who had been to China to take over esoteric Buddhism, and started Shingon 1200 years ago in Japan, brought back this peony as a herbal medicine.

Also, plants such as dandelion, perilla, mugwort and houttuynia used for medicinal cuisine has grown naturally from ancient times.

To keep these plants and flowers, the chief priest of a Buddhist temple decided to have rabbits and let them eat weeds around the temple without using herbicide which affects on environment and human body.

He also wants to increase tourists to Sado Island, so established a big rabbit statue and showed his respect to the rabbits.

This 6m rabbit statue has the Eleven-faced Goddess of Mercy on his belly, and it protects rabbits there.

You can see 3 Eleven-faced Goddess of Mercy, which is designated as a National important cultural property made of Saint Kobo(Kukai) and spiritual Japanese cedar trees.

If you have a note book, you might want to get a golden rabbit stamp there as your memory too.

Furthermore, you can have unique experiences there as below.

Double coffin experience
You can lie down in the coffin and be reborn.
There are single coffin in the world, but only this place has double coffins.
So, you can experience this with your partner or loved one.
Preaching in the dark
The monk preaches with a candle light in the dark for 20min.
He will talk about the life and universe, and it will give you the chance to face yourself.