Echizen Daibutsu

Enormous modern Buddha hall and pagoda complex set against Katsuyama's wooded hills.

Echizen Daibutsu is modern, huge, and a little strange. Built in the late twentieth century, the temple complex centres on one of Japan's largest indoor Buddha statues, with a tall pagoda and wooded hills around it.

It lacks the deep history of Nara, but the scale is impressive and the site is far less crowded.

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