Sanjusangendo temple

Dad, dwarfed by the huge building that holds the 1000 gold statues of the Buddhist Thousand Armed Kannon. Pictures are forbidden inside, but this shot gives a sense of the size of the thing. Important, when considering the building's role as a site for bow and arrow contests, originating in the 16th century. The ?yakazu (lit. great many arrows) contest, for example, consisted of firing as many arrows as possible for a 24 hour period. On April 26, 1686, Wasa Daihachiro from Kish? successfully fired 8,133 arrows (from a total fired of 13, 053) down the length of the veranda. This meant that this man would have averaged 544 arrows an hour (that's 9 arrows a minute) constantly for a twenty-four hour period. Unbelievable.