Most of Japan’s great Buddha statues have stood for centuries. This one was completed in the late 1980s.
Tada Kiyoshi, a Katsuyama native who had built a successful business in Osaka, wanted to give something back to the place where he grew up. What he built was Seidaiji — a temple complex on a scale rarely attempted in modern Japan, and at its center a seated Buddha 17 meters tall, higher than the Great Buddha of Nara.
For all its scale, the temple drew few visitors for many years. It has no long history, and Japanese travelers have tended to look for age in their temples. Recently, though, that has begun to change. The interior of the hall — where more than 1,200 small Buddha figures line the walls around the great statue — has become widely known through Instagram, and more people now come, often combining the visit with the Dinosaur Museum nearby.
The architecture itself is genuinely impressive. The temple now belongs to the Myoshinji branch of the Rinzai Zen school, and from the five-story pagoda on the grounds there is a sweeping view over the town of Katsuyama and the mountains beyond.
Come without preconceptions and this place will repay you. The scale is overwhelming, the halls are often quiet, and standing alone before a Buddha of this size is an experience that even Japan’s most celebrated temples can rarely offer today.
How To Visit:
Seidaiji (the Echizen Daibutsu) sits on the edge of Katsuyama, close to both the Dinosaur Museum and Heisenji Hakusan Shrine. With a car, the three make a comfortable day together.
By car, it is about 15 minutes from the Katsuyama Interchange on the Chubu-Jukan Expressway, and around 10 minutes from the Dinosaur Museum.
By train, take the Echizen Railway from Fukui Station to Katsuyama, about an hour, then a taxi or local bus for the short remaining distance.
Allow around an hour for the visit, or a little longer if you climb the five-story pagoda.