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Show DaviD Centuries of Competition in Homage Hom-age to the Great Buddha KARA UPON entering Japan prepare pre-pare to meet Daibutsu, principal of the Buddhistic divinities. di-vinities. Everywhere one turns is to be found evidence of this transplanted religion out of India In-dia that entered Japan in 552 A. D. Today 71,193 temples and 41,962,000 adherents testify to its influence in-fluence in the Flowery Kingdom. Out of Buddhism in this part of the world eleven sects have sprung up, the Shinshu, which discards the idea of celibacy for the clergy, with 20,000 temples and 13,000,000 devotees, leading by a great majority. ma-jority. During the earlier periods when sects were forming at a rate that threatened to retard rather than advance the teachings and spread of Buddhism, the Emperor Shomu, 749 A. D., caused to be erected at Nara a Daibutsu that still enjoys the distinction of being the largest metal image in the world. One standing in the presence of this amazing creation, more fearsome fear-some than words can convey, cannot can-not but be impressed with its character char-acter and its immensity. The temple tem-ple in which it is housed offers little lit-tle or no light for the figure. From every angle mighty pillars obstruct the view of this somber, awe-spreading awe-spreading colossus, twice almost destroyed by fire, for centuries neglected, neg-lected, at last restored by the Emperor Meiji, 1903, and completed complet-ed without the slightest alteration in style by Emperor Taisho, 1913. Image is Sinister The Nara Daibutsu, containing 437 tons of bronze, 7 tons of vegetable vege-table wax, 288 pounds of gold, 165 pounds of mercury, the two latter ingredients used solely for gilding, although most of the glitter has disappeared, leaving only a black metallic epidermis, African in tone, which gives the image a sinister character, suggesting something medieval as it reposes cross-legged in the shadows of the temple. The right hand is open and held waist high, the left likewise and resting upon the knee, while the figure itself is seated upon a throne of lotus leaves 68 feet in diameter, made up of 56 petals. Behind this tarnished Daibutsu is a halo 38 feet in height, containing 12 small images of Buddha, each nine feet in height. The sheltering temple, built the following year, was completely destroyed de-stroyed by fire in the Twelfth century, and with it the head and shoulders of Daibutsu. By imperial imper-ial order, the head was replaced and a new temple made ready in 1190. But the monument to Buddha, although escaping destruction, destruc-tion, was not to enjoy peace, for, 370 years later, the temple was again destroyed by fire and the unfortunate un-fortunate Daibutsu was exposed to the elements for more than a hundred hun-dred years, all of which added no luster to its appearance. In the year 1700, the temple, rebuilt re-built and completed after three years' labor, became the center of Buddhist pilgrimages to the extent of 3,000,000 people per annum, although al-though in the next century the temple tem-ple all but came to a complete ruin. The comparatively recent restoration restor-ation of the temple puts it in a class by itself: Width 188 feet, depth 166 feet, height 160 feet, and pillars, 60 in number, 45 1-2 feet in diameter. Said to be the largest larg-est wooden structure in the world. A week later, at Kamakura, under un-der a blue sky, the whole landscape land-scape shimmering midst the verdure ver-dure of spring, in a forest of pine and maple mottled with cherry blossoms, I came suddenly upon another an-other and smaller Daibutsu, cast 500 years later; a work in green bronze, 42 feet high, and weighing only 42 tons. Smaller Buddha Has Beauty But there was beauty in the face, humility in the downcast eyes and incomparable serenity in the posture. pos-ture. The two hands are laid in the lap, palms upward, thumbs touching, the Buddhistic sign for steadfast faith. And over all, ineffable in-effable resignation approaching sublimity to whomsoever would "look carefully within himself" and find the Buddha. The Kamakura Daibutsu, cast in 1252 by Ono Goroemon, was originally orig-inally installed in a large building, damaged in 1368 by storm and carried car-ried away by a tidal wave in 1494, two years after Columbus had sailed his caravels into the Caribbean. Carib-bean. Since then it has remained uncovered, a sublime symbol of patience, pa-tience, secure on its pedestal, against which the waters of the sea arose in accordance with prophecy and halted lest they disturb dis-turb the meditations that had remained re-mained unbroken for 700 years. To this traveler, as between the Nara and the Kamakura Daibutsu, the difference was as darkness and light. One is a mountain of crudity crudi-ty in a mighty wooden shed and the other a jade-tinted jewel gleaming untrammeled under the wide and starry sky. Copyright. WNU Service. |