The central gate of the Shorinzan Darumaji (少林山達磨寺) temple. It belongs to the Obaku (黄檗宗) line of Zen Buddhism and is dedicated to Daruma, or Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen and exists since 1697; the temple was connected to one branch of the Tokugawa shogun family and this is why it sports its crest. Its ninth abbot, Togaku (東嶽) was the one who made the first Daruma doll and taught the farmers in the area to make them too so they would have something to sell when crops didn't go well. The rest is a story we have told before --and have been saying everyday the last couple of weeks!
(For a bigger version of this picture both in color and black and white, check my "Japan Arekore" set on Flickr).
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