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One Introduction: Living Buddhist Statues NOTES One Introduction: Living Buddhist Statues 1. Donald Lopez, “Introduction: Buddhism,” in Religions of Asia in Practice, ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002), 169. 2. The Sino-Japanese character butsu in such a case can refer to either a sculpted or a painted image. Sometimes it can be discerned as one or the other from context; sometimes this remains unclear. 3. Richard Davis, Lives of Indian Images (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 8–9. 4. Ibid., 11. 5. The following discussion is based on Nishimura Kocho, Butsuzo wa kataru (Tokyo: Shinchosha, 1990), 156–159. 6. Today, this image resides in Toji temple’s museum, which is open for a limited period every year in fall and spring. 7. Nishimura, Butsuzo wa kataru, 159. 8. James H. Foard, “The Tale of the Burned-Cheek Amida and the Motif of Body Substitution,” The Japan Foundation Newsletter 26 (Nov. 1998): 8. 9. For an outline of the major issues surrounding religious images and their relationships to humans, see David Freedberg, The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989). An intriguing analysis of one aspect of this rela- tionship, what it might mean to “see” the Buddha in an Indian Buddhist context, is presented in Malcolm David Eckel, To See the Buddha: A Philosopher’s Quest for the Meaning of Emptiness (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992). 10. D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism (1934; rpt., New York: Grove Press, 1964), 39. 11. Carlyle Adler, “Dazzled by Demons,” Time Asia 164, no. 24 (Dec. 13, 2004): 54. 12. T 51: 880b4–9. Translation from Samuel Beal, trans., Si-yu-ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World (1884; rpt., New York: Paragon Book Reprint Corp., 1968), 1: 103. 13. For Xuanzang’s account, see T 51: 898a6–16, and the English translation in Beal, 1: 235–236. For Faxian’s narrative, see Gaoseng Faxian zhuan in T 51: 860b18–23 and the English transla- tion in James Legge, trans., A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms: Being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fa-Hien of His Travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399–414) in Search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline (1886; rpt., New York: Dover, 1965), 56–57. For a discussion of the historical accu- racy of Xuanzang’s account and of his interest in miraculous images, see Robert L. Brown, “Expected Miracles: The Unsurprisingly Miraculous Nature of Buddhist Images and Relics,” in Images, Miracles, and Authority in Asian Religious Traditions, ed. Richard Davis (Boulder: Westview Press, 1998), 24–27. 14. The Long Search: Footprints of the Buddha (New York: Time Life Video, 1977). 194 Notes 15. Richard Gombrich, “The Consecration of a Buddhist Image,” The Journal of Asian Studies 26, no. 1 (Nov. 1966): 24–25. For detailed descriptions of eye-opening ceremonies in Thailand, also a Theravada country, see Donald Swearer, Becoming the Buddha: The Ritual of Image Consecration in Thailand (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004). 16. Davis, Lives of Indian Images, 13. For an in-depth discussion of the agency for the miracles per- formed by Buddhist images, see Robert L. Brown, “The Miraculous Buddha Image: Portrait, God, or Object?” in Images, Miracles, and Authority in Asian Religious Traditions, ed. Richard Davis (Boulder: Westview Press, 1998), 37–54. 17. Deitrich Seckel, Buddhist Art of East Asia, trans. Ulrich Mammitzsch (Bellingham, WA: Western Washington University, 1989), 189. The original work in German was first published in 1957. 18. Ibid., 194. 19. Robert H. Sharf, “Prolegomenon to the Study of Japanese Buddhist Icons,” in Living Images: Japanese Buddhist Icons in Context, ed. Robert Sharf and Elizabeth Horton Sharf (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001), 18. 20. The probable reason this statue became associated with mothers is that it contains, in its hollow wooden body, a smaller Yakushi statue. Thus, like a mother, it carries a living being inside its “womb.” This detail, however, is unknown to most of the statue’s devotees. 21. See, for example, T. Griffith Foulk, “Religious Functions of Buddhist Art in China,” in Cultural Intersections in Later Chinese Buddhism, ed. Marsha Weidner (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2001), 13. 22. In Japan, a ritual called misogi, which involves blessing the wood just before carving begins, rivals the eye-opening ceremony in importance, at least among monastics. It is not well known, however, among laypeople, and has not been widely studied by scholars. 23. The following discussion is based on Nishimura, Butsuzo wa kataru, 94–97. 24. This gesture is the same as that of the Christians, although the two are not related in origin. 25. Nishimura, Butsuzo wa kataru, 94–96. 26. Freedberg, Power of Images, 96. 27. The Japanese term butsuzo, or buddha image, is often used informally to refer to a statue of any deity, whether it belongs to the Buddhist or the Shinto pantheon. This is more reasonable than it may at first sound, because in some cases, the deity may have developed through influence from both traditions, and may not easily be classified as belonging exclusively to either. 28. Watsuji Tetsuro, Koji junrei (1918; rpt., Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1979). 29. Ito Seiko and Miura Jun, Kenbutsuki (Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten, 1993). The term “seeing the buddhas” (kenbutsu; Ch. xianfo) occurs frequently in classical Chinese Buddhist texts. It is, how- ever, unlikely that Ito and Miura were aware of that fact, and even more improbable that their readers know this. For them, the word functions as a clever pun. 30. Otera ni iko! ed. Kojima Dokkaan and Mikami Ken’ichi (Tokyo: Fusosha, 2004), 8. 31. Hana, Chiisai butsuzo, okii butsuzo (Tokyo: Tokyo Shoseki, 2003), 30. 32. Ibid., 60. 33. SNKBT 30: 81. For an English translation, see Kyoko Motomochi Nakamura, trans., Miraculous Stories from the Japanese Buddhist Tradition: The Nihon Ryoiki of the Monk Kyokai (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973), 178. 34. Nishimura Kocho, Butsuzo no koe (Tokyo: Shinchosha, 1995), 160. 35. See Royall Tyler, Japanese Tales (New York: Pantheon Books, 1987), xix, for a discussion of the development of tale literature. 36. James Foard, “Ippen Shonin and Popular Buddhism in Kamakura Japan” (Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 1977), 51. 37. SNKBT 42: 5. Translation from D.E. Mills, trans., A Collection of Tales from Uji: A Study and Translation of Uji Shui Monogatari (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), 83. 38. SNKBT 30: 4. For an English translation, see Nakamura, Miraculous Stories from the Japanese Buddhist Tradition, 101. Notes 195 39. Nakamura, 35. 40. Foard, “Ippen Shonin and Popular Buddhism in Kamakura Japan,” 40. 41. The system itself derives from early orthodox scripture such as the Mahavairocana sutra, which discusses each category in roughly the order we find them now, although it does not explicitly state that they are a system (Mimi Hall Yiengpruksawan, “Buddha’s Bodies and the Iconographical Turn in Buddhism,” in Buddhist Spirituality: Later China, Korea, Japan, and the Modern World, ed. Takeuchi Yoshinori [New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, A Herder & Herder Book, 1999], 407). 42. The exact dates of »akyamuni Buddha are a matter of much dispute. Traditionally, he is thought to have died between 486 and 477 BCE, but the Theravada tradition assigns a date about one hundred years earlier, while some in Japan argue for a date about one hundred years later. 43. Yiengpruksawan, “Buddha’s Bodies,” 410. Two S´akyamuni: Still Alive in This World 1. Traditionally, the date for this rite was the eighth day of the fourth month according to the lunar calendar; it has been celebrated in April since the adoption of the Western (Gregorian) calendar in the Meiji period. 2. Note that monasteries are different from ordinary temples. The Zen school in Japan, for example, has about 21,000 temples all over the country, but only 60 monasteries. The priests of ordinary temples are focused on serving the needs of lay parishioners, mainly by performing funerals and memorial services. Monasteries, on the other hand, are training grounds for those who will become temple priests, and thus are the site of the most involved daily ritual activity. The Flower Festival celebrations attended by most laypeople occur at ordinary temples, not monasteries. 3. Sotoshu Shumucho Kyokabu, ed., Showa shutei, Sotoshu gyoji kihan (Tokyo: Sotoshu Shumucho, 1988), 131. Translated by T. Griffith Foulk, Standard Observances of the Soto Zen School (Forthcoming). I am grateful to Professor Foulk for providing his translation. 4. Ibid. Tathagata is an honorary epithet for the Buddha, literally meaning “thus-come one.” 5. Ibid., 133. 6. Gassho refers to the joining of the two palms in prayer, which is also a gesture of respect. 7. The Sumeru altar is the central platform of a Buddhist altar upon which the main image is placed. In Buddhist cosmology, Mt. Sumeru is the large mountain in the center of the universe. 8. Sotoshu Shumucho Kyokabu, ed., Showa shutei, Sotoshu gyoji kihan, 115. 9. A dramatic photo of the contents of the statue at the moment the cavity was uncovered may be found in George Henderson and Leon Hurvitz, “The Buddha of Seiryoji: New Finds and New Theory,” Artibus Asiae 19, no. 1 (1956): 9. 10. Shimizu Mazumi, Butsuzo to hito no rekishi hakken: taimu kapuseru ga hikarete (Tokyo: Ribun Shuppan, 2000), 85–86. 11. Bijutsushi Gakkai, ed., Besson Kyoto butsuzo zusetsu (Kyoto: Usui Shobo, 1943), 40–44. 12. In Buddhist cosmology, several levels of heavens exist above the earthly dwelling-place of humans. While these heavens are a more comfortable abode than is this world, they still are part of the cycle of rebirth and suffering. The Buddha’s mother is said to have died shortly after giv- ing birth to him and was reborn in the second of the heavens, the Heaven of Thirty-Three (Sk.
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