Entering Koto Temple from the shopping street, you will be surrounded by a quiet atmosphere.

There is a small hill in the precincts of Koto Temple, which is called Bungo Mountain. The reason for the name is to commemorate Shigemasa Matsukura, who built Shimabara Castle in 1957, and Shigemasa Itakura, a general of the Shogunate’s army who was killed in a general attack on the castle during the Shimabara Rebellion, a statue of Seppo-Nehan was erected at this site.

The statue stands 8.6 meters tall and 2.12 meters wide. The word “nehan” refers to the state of enlightenment in which the fire of worldly desires is extinguished and wisdom is perfected, but it is also used to describe the Buddha’s death.

This statue of Nehan depicts the Buddha giving a sermon to his disciples under the sara tree at Kushinara, near his hometown, until his deathbed. The soles of his feet are carved with the phase of the great wheel of the Buddha’s feet, and his head holds 10,000 scrolls of sutra transcriptions made by his followers.