After leaving from Shojudo (see previous topic), I went to Shin-Yakushi-ji Temple in a bit of hurry to get in time for closing time. The master of Shojudo told me it should took around 30 minutes by walk. It was hot day, so I was slightly sweaty. Japanese wisteria trees along the street budded and was almost blooming. To take a short cut, I went through a path linked to the hill where Shin-Yakushiji Temple stands on quietly. I felt Shin-Yakushiji was smaller than I expected.

The front door of the main hall was closed, so I entered to the inside from left side, and then I could see the Juni-Shinsho statues: The twelve divine generals, stood on the floor surrounding the Yakushi-nyorai statue. The inside of the room was dark, but a few candles lit the statues, I was impressed. I couldn’t wait to start watching closely, even though I should have pray the principal statue before watching them. I was really into these statues.

I guessed some of Japanese Mangas and animations had much influenced by the Buddha statue images. For example, the Bassara general, which is one of the Twelve divine generals, reminded me of the Katsuhiro Otomo’s “AKIRA”, which is SF manga. While the Four Heavenly Kings of Todai-ji Temple reminded me of the Gundam, which is the most well known Japanese robot animation, and I could find some common characteristics between these images.

One of the reasons I like the Juni-Shinsho statues was that every statue has its own characteristic looking each. They were soldiers to protect Yakushi-nyorai. I thought they seemed to play their roll saving the principal statue Yakushi-nyorai as if the characters in a fantasy story would try to save a heroine.