If you intend to travel to Japan, especially Sapporo, do not forget to visit Makomanai Takino Cemetery to admire an architectural masterpiece here. It is called a cemetery, but the cemetery has a poetic landscape and is a beautiful architectural work.
As described by architecture magazine Dezeen, the statue is “hidden” in a giant well in the center of this hill. From a distance, people can only see the head of the statue and you can only admire the whole body of the statue when going inside the well. And to get here, visitors have to go through a tunnel of about 40 m to get inside the well.
The well ring is made up of a curved concrete ring that gradually narrows from low to high to create a sense of the sky. The tunnel leading to the well is softly lit to create a sense of a deep, mysterious space; the central circular area will be naturally lit to create a bright, noble feeling.
Around the well are planted more than 150,000 purple lavender plants, creating a beautiful and dreamy scene. In winter, snow accumulates, covering the head of the statue, creating a mysterious beauty.
Tadao Ando is an architect who is famous in the world for his beautiful and creative works. He completed this “Hill of Buddha” project in 2015, but it was only recently that the public widely knew about this place, thanks to the photos that were spread on the Internet.
“15 years ago, the original intention of the project was to build a chapel (large prayer room) to highlight the beauty of the Buddha statue. The chosen location was a hill with a gentle slope of 180˚ located within the cemetery,” Ando shared.
“But recently, we realized that leaving him alone like that would create an “unpeaceful” impression. The project owner wanted to bring a more peaceful feeling to visitors to this place. Therefore, I decided to place him inside a hill and cover the entire hill with lavender. After covering, the scene became more pleasant, the head of this Buddha statue peeking out interestingly from the lavender bushes. We called this idea “Buddha peeking out”. The addition of seasonal vegetation to this project has created a beautiful background landscape for the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.”
Ando is a famous architect not only in Japan but also in the world. He won the Pritzker Prize in 1995, the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1997 and the AIA Gold Medal in 2002. He ranked 16th on the “hot” list of architecture magazine Dezeen. There are many architectural and art projects that Ando has recently completed that are described as picturesque.
