Five hundred arhat statues, each with a different expression and pose, were sitting in one of the Kita-in temples in imitation of Buddha's disciples, who numbered 500

It is a matter of course, but the reason why the teachings of Buddhism are still widely spread today is because Gautama Siddhartha, the founder of Buddhism, had disciples who passed his teachings on to future generations. No matter how brilliant a religious leader Gautama Siddhartha may have been, Buddhism would have disappeared long ago if there had been no one to carry on his teachings.

According to the Indian Buddhist canon, Gautama Siddhartha had 500 disciples. Some say that this number is the number of those who followed the Buddha, and some say that it is the number of those who participated in the compilation of the sutras immediately after the Buddha's death, but in any case, he had many followers. If the "Dunbar's number," which places the limit of human connections at 150, is true, the number is so large that even Gautama Siddhartha could not keep track of it.

In a section of Kita-in Temple in Kawagoe, there is a statue of five hundred arhats representing the five hundred disciples of Gautama Siddhartha. The statues depicting the many disciples are lined up in a row. Among the Arhats, there are of course serious-looking Arhats, but there are also crying Arhats, angry Arhats, and whispering Arhats, which makes one feel noisy when looking at them. Looking at the expressions on their faces, one begins to think that the fact that there are 538 statues of the 500 Arhats is merely a charm.

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