Hasedera Temple (長谷寺) is famous for an eleven-headed statue of Kannon, the Buddhist goddess of mercy, which was carved out of a single trunk of a camphor tree in the early 8th century. While the Kannon-do Hall containing the 30-foot carving of the Kannon is the centerpiece, other points of interest include the Jizo-do Hall, which contains hundred of small statues of Jizo Bodhisattva (the guardian of children), and the Benten-kutsu, a small cave with candle-lit carvings of minor gods.
