Starting with this post I would like to share some basic information on the important Buddhist sites in Japan which I previously read about and desire to visit myself one day. I also hope to be able to write this using more Japanese in the future.
The Todai-ji (東大寺) in the city of Nara (奈良市)
Not just for children, adults try it too!
Following the Shinto (神道) tradition (the indigenous religion which predates Buddhism in Japan) of building structures in wood, the Todaiji is constructed using only natural materials and currently holds the record of being the largest wooden structure in the world. Inside the temple is a bronze statue of Vairochana Buddha (大日如来) which is simply called "great Buddha" or Daibutsu (大仏) in Japanese. This is also the largest bronze Buddha statue in the world.
Inside 東大寺 is a great pillar at the base of which there is a small hole that one can squeeze through. The hole is supposedly the same size as the nostrils of the 大仏. According to legend one who can squeeze through this pillar will gain enlightenment in their next reincarnation to this world. I think this promise makes 東大寺 a very beneficial place to visit apart from its obvious religious and historical value. =)
カーンさん、にほん（日本）にいきましたか。
ReplyDeleteわたしはにねんまえ（二年前）とうきょう（東京）へいきました。いちがつ（一月）にいきました。I had friends teaching English in the area (I was teaching in China at the time) and early January was the only time our holidays overlapped. So I got to see some of the New Year's festivities, and we went to a fair number of shrines and temples (sadly, I don't remember their names).
I think it's really interesting that the temple architecture in Japan generally looks very similar to とうちょう（唐朝）architecture.
(By the way, I think I hate trying to write kanji- not to be confused with Chinese characters- on the computer. The dictionary keeps telling me that とうちょう is Tang dynasty and giving me the kanji, but when I write the hiragana and press the space bar, 唐朝 isn't even on the computer's list of guesses! I finally ended up switching to Chinese to write the characters. There's got to be a better way to write kanji...)
I was there two years ago! すごいですね。I couldn't believe how big the buddha was, its impossible to see in pictures. I couldn't go through the pillar though, there were lots of がくせい there, and so a huge line.
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting! I've never been to Japan, nor do I know all that much about Shinto or Buddhist architecture, but it would be interesting to compare the temples I've been in China/Taiwan to those in Japan. What exactly is the deal with the relationship between Shinto and Buddhism in Japan? Are they more of a syncretic mix, or fairly distinct traditions? (I suppose that the answer to this depends on which "period" we're talking about...)
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