{"id":10987,"date":"2025-04-10T04:24:22","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T10:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/?p=10987"},"modified":"2025-04-10T04:24:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T10:24:22","slug":"temporary-place-of-suffering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/?p=10987","title":{"rendered":"Temporary place of suffering"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After taking our train trip to Nirvana, we returned to Fukuoka to search out the Tocho-ji Temple.  It sits, like the Little Temple That Could, squat among modern high rises in the middle of the city.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Little Temple That Could<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Founded in 806 AD by the Buddhist monk Kukai, the temple is over 1200 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Enshrined near the temple is a carving of a daibatsu, or wooden statue, of a Buddha 36 feet high weighing 30 tons.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Wooden Buddha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Behind the Buddha is a dark passage that is meant to remind people of Jigoku, \u201ca place of torment where beings are meant to suffer for their negative actions.\u201d  The idea of Jigoku comes from the Shingon school of Buddhism practiced by Kukai.  Along the wall of the curved passage were panels divided into hellscapes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Looks bad\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u2026but it\u2019s only temporary<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the Jigoku paintings we entered a narrow, twisting, pitch black passage.\u00a0\u00a0Or at least we thought we did.\u00a0\u00a0The space was so tight and dark we couldn\u2019t tell if it led anywhere.\u00a0\u00a0Luckily we could hear people ahead of us and it sounded like they were moving.\u00a0\u00a0Did I mention how claustrophobic Ella gets in confined, lightless places?\u00a0\u00a0The point of Jigoku was made.\u00a0\u00a0Soon we heard voices ahead of us laughing with nervous relief.\u00a0\u00a0We staggered into the light at the foot of the daibatsu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ella seized the prayer rope and rang the bell.  Our temple trek for the day was done.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Free from the dark passage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After taking our train trip to Nirvana, we returned to Fukuoka to search out the Tocho-ji Temple.  It sits, like the Little Temple That Could, squat among modern high rises in the middle of the city. Founded in 806 AD by the Buddhist monk Kukai, the temple is over 1200 years old. Enshrined near the temple…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-silently-in-japan"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10987"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11001,"href":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10987\/revisions\/11001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grubbella.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}