These particular daruma are divorced of their original Zen meanings and re-appropriated as "kachi-daruma", which means "Winning-Daruma" and are used to pray for victory or a particular wish to come true. They are one of my favorite "characters" of Japan and they are bought for a couple of hundred yen and placed all over the grounds of Katsuo-ji. It makes for an intersting walk through the grounds, to be sure! When i was there the grounds were almost completely empty of other people (i only saw three other visitors) so it was very peaceful and i was able to walk up the mountain quite a ways and discover parts of the grounds that tourists probably don`t usually see. I also nearly broke my neck coming back down the set of muddy ancient stairs that look like they may have been there since the temple was founded in 727A.D.! The view from the top was also amazing.
so many Daruma...
so many stairs... why did i try to run up them?
Statue and Stupa
Spot the Daruma!! it`s the ancient precursor to Where`s Waldo!
The Deadly Ancient Stairs (sounds like a cool band name...)
view from the top of the deadly stairs:
it`s lonely at the top. this statue was all by itself waaaaaay at the top of the deadly stairs and then a little further. someone else had been there recently to offer some juice, coffee and flowers, though.
those Daruma are EVERYWHERE!!! these ones were keeping company with this ogre who was one of four holding the insence cauldron in front of the main alter.
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