Kumano Magaibutsu

These cliff-face carvings are among the largest of their kind in Japan. The Dainichi Nyorai figure stands 6.8 meters tall and was likely carved in the tenth or eleventh century by a sculptor trained in Nara and Kyoto. Beside it, the 8-meter Fudo Myo-o dates to the twelfth century and is notable for its unusually gentle expression, rare for a deity typically depicted as ferocious. Local legend holds that the uneven stone steps leading up to the carvings were built overnight by an ogre, promised a meal of human flesh. Both figures are powerful icons of Esoteric Buddhism.