- Perfect Liberty (PL) Peace Tower at Tondabayashi -

When I was visiting the Sayamaike Museum by Ando I was astounded by this tower in the distance. "What the fuck is that?!" was my first impression from afar. Later that day I found out from Hector that it was the PL Peace Tower, and that I ought to be careful not to be sucked-in to their religion if I were to go visit. Curious, I went the following day to Tondabayashi to check it out.

Perfect Liberty is the religion and it's about world peace, apparently. They had very strict rules not to allow visitors past certain areas and you can pretty much only visit the ground floor and a worship hall on the first level, even though the tower was many storeys tall. The tower is dedicated to peace, and all the names of the people in the world who have perished in wars are stored on microfilm in a sacred golden container...somewhere.

The late Second Kyoso (religious founder) designed this sculptural building in clay, and it is reminescent of a pointing finger as it symbolises their dictum "The Truth is One". They seem to like art and sculpture judging from the displays and explanatory text I read. I remember reading something along the lines of "through art we can find truth and peace".

There are other administrative buildings nearby and kids were playing at a PL school playground when I passed it. It was an interesting day out I must say. :)