S P O T ／ SPOT-088

Shōdoshima Daikannon (Happiness Kannon)

小豆島大観音しょうどしまだいかんのん

On a low hill on the island of Shōdoshima in the Seto Inland Sea, a tall white standing Kannon — locally called the Shiawase Kannon, or 'Happiness Kannon' — rises above olive groves and small farms. The figure won first prize at a French international contest of architectural artworks (the so-called 'Arc Plus' competition), an unusual pedigree for a Japanese roadside Buddha and the reason the island's tourism agency cheerfully promotes the statue as 'the world's most beautiful Kannon.' Inside the statue's hollow body, an elevator carries visitors up through galleries holding 11,000 small votive Buddhas to a viewing chamber located inside the figure's chest, where windows look out across the Inland Sea toward Tonoshō Port and the famous Angel Road sandbar. Relics of the historical Buddha, donated from Sri Lanka, are enshrined in the chest gallery. At night, the figure is illuminated and visible from passing ferries — one of the small constellation of unexpected landmarks that makes Shōdoshima feel, at every turn, like a larger island than its map suggests.