It is said that there is a world of ease in the far west where lotus flowers bloom, free from suffering and worries. Buddhism associates the fear of death with the west, where the sun sets, and preaches that paradise lies in the west. Therefore, Amitabha Buddha is enshrined in the west. Jodoji Temple is the embodiment of this idea in its original form.
This is one of temples which were built in various places to collect donations for the reconstruction of Todaiji Temple in Nara. It is such a magnificent temple that if they had that kind of money, they should have used it to rebuild Todaiji itself. The shape of main hall’s roof reminds us of Gangoji Temple in Nara.
jodoji(2)main hall
jodoji(4)
jodoji(5)hydrangea in summer
jodoji(6)shrine in the temple
Once inside, the setting sun shining through lattice doors illuminates the floorboards, and the giant Amida Triad shines golden in the reflected light. It gives a sense of the great imagination that came with this effect at the time. Please note that the closing times are different in summer and winter. Maybe it’s because the sunset time is different. On the other hand, there is also a lunch break time. Interestingly, there is Hachiman Shrine, which cuts through the flow of traffic within the temple grounds.
jodoji amidasub temple (4)dwart made by a monk
The chief priest of the sub-temple, Kanki-in adjacent to Jodoji Temple is making cute dolls made of clay. They also have seasonal dolls, which is a great appeal to repeat customers. However, even though it’s a temple and not a shrine, the dolls come with fortune telling fortunes.
promenard to sub temple (1)
promenard to sub temple (2)
sub temple (3)
sub temple (1)
sub temple (2)
Detour
In summer, a huge sunflower field appears just around Jodoji Temple.
sun flower field
Today’s INN
A hot spring inn located in the back of Himeji City.
Just 80 minutes from Tokyo on the Hokuriku Shinkansen, you will arrive at the snow-covered city of prayer. The exterior design of the Nagano Station building is an homage to the main hall of Zenkoji Temple. Daimon, entrance of Zenkoji, is about a 10 minute bus ride from bus stop number 1 in front of the station. The best time to visit is early in the morning when there are fewer worshipers on the approach, and this is when the shops on both sides of the approach open their shutters.
hokuriku bullet train
nagano station
The pair of statues of A-un at the Niomon gate is powerful and reminds us of the statues made by Unkei at Todaiji Temple.
niomon1
niomon2
niomon3
sanmon1 approach
The Sanmon Gate finally comes into view in front of us, and it reminds us of the Sanmon Gate of Chion-in Temple in Kyoto, or the Sanmon Gate of Nanzen-ji Temple, where the great thief Goemon enjoyed a spectacular view from the top of the gate. When you climb up here, you can see Nagano city below and the surrounding mountains, but you can also feel that Zenkoji is located at the top of the alluvial fan.
sanmon2
from sanmon1 nagano city
sanmon3 plaque
The name of Zenkoji is written on the plaque on the temple gate. Normally people would be excited to find the five pigeons hidden inside the kanji, but I’m more curious about why the name of the temple is written on the plaque when the mountain name is usually written on it. Returning to the topic of looking for pigeons, it is difficult to find the last one, but the biggest hint is that its tail is visible. Just find it on site.
zenkoji eko pillar
I also asked the security guard at the temple gate and was convinced that there was still a knowledge hidden in this plaque. At Zenkoji Temple, an Eko (memorial service) pillar is erected in front of the main hall once every six years in order to connect with Maedachi on behalf of the principal image, and touching this pillar is a major event. Speaking of Zenkoji Temple, there is a famous story called
“Visiting Zenkoji Temple being pulled by a Cow”
in which a woman who did not believe in Buddhism got her costume caught in the horns of a cow, and the woman chased after it to get it back and ends up visiting Zenkoji Temple. The cow was an incarnation of Buddha. The face of the cow and the Kanji character of a sheep, animal 6th year after a cow year in the Chinese zodiac, are hidden in this Zenkoji plaque.
from sanmon2
from sanmon3 kyozo
from sanmon4 hondo
Now, we finally enter the main hall, but since the attraction here is famous, where you search for the key to connect with the principal image in the dark, you can’t help but head towards the entrance of an altar tour first. Then, the monk who guides tourists inside the temple scolds them, saying, “What’s wrong with going into someone’s house and not greeting the Lord?” Then you notice that the principal image of the Buddha, which should be located directly in front of the center inside the main hall, is now to the left of the center. To the right of the center is a statue of the Lord of the house and his family. The monk explains that Zenkoji is not actually a temple, but Zenko-san’s private residence, and the Buddha is enshrined there. So, first of all, you have to say hello to the Lord.
By the way, I couldn’t get enough of being scolded, so I asked him about the secret Buddha statue, which even the head priest of Zenkoji Temple had never seen, how big it was and what it was made of, and he answered smoothly that it was 1 sun and 8 shaku (about 54cm) tall and made of gold. The story is about Mr. HONDA Yoshimitsu (Zenko), a local civil servant, who picked up a Buddhist statue that had been abandoned (due to the Mononobe clan’s anti-Buddhism movement during the Asuka period) in Namba (Osaka) while on a business trip. The story is that since people didn’t know about the existence of Buddha or the value of gold at that time, no one would have paid any attention to it even if it was thrown away. It makes sense, but I wonder if that’s true.
Afterwards, Minamoto no Yoritomo also visited Zenkoji Temple, and the secret Buddha statue was brought out by Takeda Shingen and returned by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In any case, it was famous enough to be talked about at the time. By the way, when you look up at the ceiling, you can see the pattern of the chrysanthemum crest. The monk boasts that this is proof that the Imperial family donated the money.
entrance of altar tour at zenkoji (Source: Zenkoji HP)
Now it’s time to tour the altar. At the entrance, hold your luggage in your left hand and run along the wall with your right hand to touch the key that connects to the principal image above. It’s getting darker and darker, and I’m afraid to take a step forward. I don’t think anything will come out, but it’s scarier than a haunted house. I suddenly feel anxious and want to hold on to something or someone (=> Buddha) to guide me. This is the purpose of the altar tour. At first I thought that if someone lost something in the pitch darkness, the monk would look for it with a flashlight, but as the tour progressed, the darkness made me forget that.
zenkoji pine tree
zennkoji pagoda
zenkouji the person who invest rinzo
Finally, go to the sutra. I’m amazed at the opportunism that by rotating the octagonal receptacle that holds the sutras by hands, you can get the same merit as reading all 7,000 volumes of sutras. I heard that the weight of the storage receptacle is 5 tons, of which 1.2 tons are sutras, but does the difference of 3.8 tons relate to merit?
Buddha statues are made of five types of materials: metal, lacquer, wood, stone, and earth, and the materials have changed over time. Naturally, costs, time, and techniques vary depending on the material, but it’s surprising that the old ones are superior in all respects. In the Asuka period, represented by Horyu-ji Temple, Buddha statues were made of gilt bronze, although they were small, but later on, lacquer was used to make them lighter so that they could be carried out in case of frequent temple fires caused by lightning. The Asura statue at Kofukuji Temple is a representative work.
shoujyouji kakushi (Source: website of village Yugawa)
Furthermore, as Buddhism spread, the demand for Buddhist statues increased, and people began to make Buddhist statues using wood, which was easy to procure and could be produced in a short time. During the Heian period, there were many Buddhist statues made of one piece of wood. There are more wooden Buddhist statues in Nara than in Kyoto, but the surviving single-wood Buddha statues are valuable because the Heike family burned down temples that sided with the Genji clan at the end of the Heian period. Therefore, the precious single-wooden Buddha statues surprisingly remain in the region. One of the representative examples is the Yakushi Nyorai statue, a national treasure, at Shoujyouji Temple in the Aizu region of Fukushima Prefecture, where Buddhist culture was flourishing.
When it became difficult to procure a single large piece of wood to carve a Buddha statue from, they introduced the method of marquetry and division of labor to enable mass production in a short time. This led to the development of the Kei-ha school, whose representative was the Buddhist sculptor Unkei. From the Kamakura period onward, muscular statues were made using marquetry.
On the other hand, regarding stone making, large amounts of marble suitable for carving were produced around the Mediterranean Sea, so stone sculptures were produced in large quantities during the Greco-Roman period, but in Japan there was a lack of natural stone suitable for carving. As a result, 60-70% of the Buddha statues carved directly into cliffs are located in Oita Prefecture.
usuki2 amida
usuki3
usuki4 holes for scriptures
usuki5
usuki7 sannosan
usuki8
usuki9 kosono
usuki11
usuki13 torii at fukada
Usuki is home to many stone cliff Buddha statues that have been designated as national treasures, and are said to date from the late Heian period to the Kamakura period. Not only is the carving beautiful, but the colors remain as well. There are all kinds of Buddhist statues, including Amida Nyorai, Yakushi Nyorai, Dainichi Nyorai, and Jizo Bosatsu.
usuki12 black garlic famous for TV shopping
By the way, many of the souvenir shops here sell black garlic as a way to promote health, but I wonder why. I heard that you can make black garlic yourself by heating and fermenting raw garlic in an electronic jar for 20 days, as I saw on a Japanese satellite TV advertising program. It’s quite expensive to buy. All the souvenir shops reminded me that Japan’s satellite broadcasts are mostly commercials for health-promoting foods, jewelry, or bedding.
