Rare prayer wheel in Japan

During my trips through Japan, I sometimes had the opportunity to see rare items... One of them is this prayer wheel found near the entrance of the Kodaiji Temple from Kyoto. The prayer wheels are Tibetan religious objects often found in Tibet and Nepal, but uncommon in the Japanese Buddhist tradition.

In the most usual form, the words inscribed on the cylinders are creating the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum, but the prayer wheels from Kodaiji are made with the Heart Sutra, one of the most popular Buddhist scriptures. According to the Tibetan tradition, to spin a prayer wheel has the same effect as reciting the prayers...