Daihonzan Naritasan Kurume Temple 大本山成田山 久留米分院

Just outside the center of Kurume City is Daihonzan Naritasan Kurume Temple. Its main feature, a 62-meter-tall statue of Kannon, the goddess of mercy, can be seen from miles around.

Take a bus from Nishitetsu Kurume Station and get off at the Kamitsu Machi bus stop (15 minutes).

From Fukuoka, take the Nishitetsu Line from Nishitetsu-Fukuoka (Tenjin) Station to Nishitetsu Kurume Station.

Daihonzan Naritasan Kurume Temple is an offshoot of Daihonzan Naritasan Shinshoji Temple in Chiba Prefecture. The temple spent approximately 2 billion yen building the statue of Kannon, the goddess of mercy, who cradles a baby in her reinforced concrete arms.

There is a spiral staircase inside Kannon. Open windows allow you to look in all directions across southern Fukuoka Prefecture. Beneath the statue is the Hell and Paradise Museum, which features dramatic, graphic recreations of scenes showing Buddhist heaven and hell.

The temple associated with the statue is impressive in its own right, with an 88-step marble staircase leading up through several gates. The largest, most impressive of these is the aptly titled Jeweled Gate of Good Fortune.

The temple building is large and ornate, and there is a visible Chinese influence in the building's architecture and decorations.