The Great Buddha
at Nara... [postcard]After the trip to Nikko I was pretty tired--as I mentioned before, the Japanese like to pack a lot into a day of sightseeing. But I really wanted to see the Buddha at Kamakura. When I was in Osaka in 1996, I had the opportunity to visit Nara, the site of the amazing Buddha in the Todaiji Temple. The Todaiji Buddha is amazing because of its size and also because it is inside a building. You can only see it after entering the building and at that point you are so clode to the statue it towers above you. It is a humbling and uplifting experience.
The Great Buddha
at Nara... [postcard]
The Buddha at Kamakura is actually larger than the one at Nara, but you can see it from farther away as it is not enclosed. I think this makes the experience less intense, but it is a beautiful sight just the same. An interesting thing about the Kamakura Buddha is that you can go inside it. This enables you to get a better idea of how such a large sculpture can be built. The Buddha at Kamakura has withstood many earthquakes but not without some casualties: at one point the head came off and at another time the whole statue was thrown off its pedestal. Fortunately the damage was repairable in both cases. The day began with Kagami-san, Saito-san, and I travelling to Kamakura from Tokyo via train. Saito-san's family lives near Kamakura so he took us on a hike from his hometown to Kamakura.
Kamakura from the
surrounding hills...
The scene as you
approach the Great Buddha at Kamakura
Kagami-san and I
in front of the Great Buddha...
A rare shot
without any people...
Another angle,
another mood...
After seeing the Buddha and taking many photographs we walked into town to eat lunch. On the way we encountered a matsuri (festival). I don't know what the festval was celebrating, but it consisted of a procession headed by a somewhat demonic-looking fellow, followed by many men carrying a palanquin. By the looks on their faces, the palanquin was very heavy.
A god or a demon?
Hard work...
The palanquin...
Our final stop was a Shinto shrine in Kamakura. I forget who the shrine is dedicated to but I believe it is a famous woman from the Edo period. One of the things I thought was interesting was the "alcohol wall" near the shrine--a large structure filled with barrels of sake and cases of beer. I asked Kagami-san to explain this and he told me that all shrines have large amounts of alcohol because of an ancient tradition. Long ago, a dragon decided to take over a shrine. The people wanted to slay the dragon but they could not get near him. However, someone had the idea to give the dragon a lot of sake. This caused the dragon to become unconscious and therefore he could easily be killed. Now all shrines have many barrels of sake ready in case a dragon should stop by.
The "alcohol
wall"...