Fureai Sekibutsu no Sato, a Most Eerie Japanese Park

The Fureai Sekibutsu no Sato is a bizarre park in Japan located in the Toyama Prefecture, near the city of Osawano. The park is home to over eight hundred stone statues of human figures which are now swallowed up by abandoned vegetation. Visitors get the impression that their every move is being watched. Some of the statues represent Buddhist deities, others reproduce the features of people who actually existed.



Fureai Sekibutsu no Sato literally means "the village where Buddhist statues can be found". It was created in 1989 by a Chinese sculptor, commissioned by Mutsuo Furukawa, a Japanese entrepreneur who wanted to immortalize the memories of the important people and divinities in his life. His objective was to create a park where guests could come to relax. It cost 6 billion yen, or about 56 million dollars. He also built a rest stop, equipped with bus service which connects to the nearby city.



Today the park gives off a bit of a spooky feel, tangled in plants with statues poking out from every angle, making guests feel like they have fallen into Medusa’s lair, meet eyes with her and become forever petrified. Photographer Ken Ohki, also known as Yukison, has immortalized this ghostly park through photographs in a series called “unreal landscapes”.



The young photographer says he stumbled across the park and immediately felt a strange sense of unease believing he had entered some sort of forbidden area. He confesses that he experienced a "terrifying" experience and that he took the photos without ever looking behind him. It is said that at sunset, when the park is completely enveloped by the shadows of the night, the statues come to life.

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