Take a walk to Shin-Yakushiji temple
After leaving from Shojudo, 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. Watching Japanese wisteria trees budded almost be showing signs of blooming, I went through a path to take a short cut and got on a 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 into the room from left side, and then I could see the Juni-Shinsho statues: The twelve divine generals, stood on there surrounding the Yakushi-nyorai statue as a principal image. The inside of the room was dark and just lit by a few candles, but I was impressed these statues. Usually, I pray a principal image before watching statues and inside the hall, but I couldn’t wait. I was really into these statues.
I guessed Japanese Mangas and animations were influenced by the Buddha statue images. For example, the Bassara general, which is one of the Twelve divine generals and I though it was the most cool, reminded me of the Katsuhiro Otomo’s “AKIRA”, which is SF manga, and 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 see some similarity points between their images. One of the reasons I like the Juni-Shinsho statues was that I can tell the looks on which have characteristic each. I thought they seemed to play their roll saving the principal image Yakushi-nyorai as if the characters in a story would try to save a heroine.