Hill of the Buddha

The Hill of the Buddha (頭大仏) is a Buddhist shrine at Makomanai Takino Cemetery (真駒内滝野霊園) in Sapporo, Japan, designed by Japanese modernist architect Tadao Ando. The shrine features a 13.5 m tall statue of the Buddha encircled by an artificial hill rotunda planted with 150,000 lavender plants.

The design incorporated the pre-existing Buddha statue, which was sculpted circa 2000 and stood solitary. On approaching the statue, only the head sticks out from the hill, and the shrine is entered through a tunnel for a full view of the statue inside of the open rotunda. The building opened in December 2015.