Upper West Side, Riverside Drive Between 105th and 106th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2009 ………. click to enlarge

Here on Riverside, right smack in the middle of our Beaux Arts Historical District is a bigger-than-lifesize statue of Shinran Shonin, a thirteenth century Buddhist monk.

I've seen this figure before but it was still a surprise to come upon him. So unexpected.

There were three nearly identical buildings here on Riverside, built at the same time and by the same architects and builders who worked on the corner building from last night. The edge of the building we see to the right of the photo is the first one, 331. You can see it has some similarities to the corner building. The second one, 332, was demolished and replaced by this Buddhist Church. And the third one, 333, must still be there, but I didn't notice because at the time I didn't know any of this and I was just looking at this monk.



Mary Sargent © 2009 …................................……. click to enlarge

This just shows you a little more of the next door building.




Mary Sargent © 2009 …................................……. click to enlarge



Mary Sargent © 2009 …................................……. click to enlarge

And here are closeups of the two stone plaques on the wall underneath the monk. One is beautiful and the other is readable. If enlarged.

See map.