Sendake-in

 This is something that you often see in older temples. At some point a statue will have been broken but they still exhibit the remaining portion. The statue in the middle probably was a Buddha or Bodhisattva. I guess it works as an example of the Buddhist 'truth' that nothing is permanent.

 This is a small building containing an altar. Notice the stone model of the pagoda that is still lying on the ground a year after it fell over in the quake.

 This seems to be a meditation hall, but I am not at all sure.

 Back at the entrance again this is another view of the three bas-relief carvings. I said that they were probably Buddhas or Bodhisattvas, but thinking about it a little more they could represent Ganjin, the Buddhist priest who went to China in the 8th century and brought back the fundamentals of Tendai Buddhism, or it could be Saicho, the Buddhist priest who went to China and returned in the year 805 with more information about Tendai and then succeeded in making it popular. Tendai Buddhism allowed the first acceptance of Shinto into Buddhist thought.

 One interesting thing about this temple was the rather sporty car that was parked under a roof on the grounds. It was covered with dirt and seemed not to have been recently used, but it definitely seemed out of place.

At the entrance and opposite the three bas-relief statues were the remains of a stone carving that would sit at the end of the ridge pole in a Japanese style building. I guess that they came from a temple building that has disappeared, probably from fire or earthquake, which seem to be the two most common causes for the destruction of old buildings.