Fodor's Expert Review Sanjusangen-do Hall

This 400-foot-long hall preserves 1,001 golden, graceful Buddhist images, one of the world's most magnificent collections of wooden statuary. Enthroned in the hall's center is a seated thousand-armed Kannon (enlightened being) crowned with 10 tiny heads. Tankei, a noted sculptor of the Kamakura period (1192–1333), carved the statue. In the corridor behind it are 30 other images, carved by the members of the same school of sculptors, that include the mythological birdlike beings called Garuda, the holy man Basusenin, and the gods of wind and thunder. The name of the hall refers to the 33 spaces between the 34 pillars that make up its length.