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Summary
Travel is an act for human beings to visit new places and experience different cultures and histories. Through travel, people can actually feel historical events and people’s lives by visiting historical places and cultural heritage sites, and can gain a deeper understanding of history and broaden their own perspectives. In this section, we will discuss the historical background of the trip and the places visited based on Ryotaro Shiba’s “Kaido yuku” (On the Road) about this journey and history.
On the Road to Nara, Volume 24: Nara Strol
In the previous issue, I described a road in Yunnan, China. This time, I will describe a walk in Nara.
Ryotaro Shiba visited Nara on the afternoon of March 1, 1984, when the Shuni-e (water-drawing) ceremony at Todaiji’s Nigatsudo Hall was about to begin. The next day, he visits Tabu Peak and contemplates the Western-style painter Atsushi Rokujo. At Kofukuji Temple, he admires the beauty of Ashura and contemplates the abolition of Buddhism in the early Meiji period over the five-story pagoda. He also walks around Nigatsudo Hall of Todaiji Temple and ponders the “culture” of Shunikai, which has continued for more than 1,000 years.
This trip will be to Kofukuji Temple, Todaiji Temple and Nara Museum in Nara Park.
Nara Park is an urban park located in Nara City, Nara Prefecture, and is a national scenic and famous landmark. The total area of the park is approximately 502 hectares. If we include the nearby Kofukuji Temple, Todaiji Temple, Kasuga Taisha Shrine, Nara National Museum, etc., the total area is approximately 660 hectares (4 km east to west and 2 km north to south). The area including the surrounding temples and shrines is usually referred to as “Nara Park.
The Great Buddha and about 1,200 deer in Nara Park are internationally famous and are the main tourist attractions in Nara, and many students on school excursions can be seen there.
In spring, the area is selected as one of the 100 best cherry blossom viewing spots in Japan, and many people enjoy cherry blossom viewing around Ukimidō Hall.
Ryotaro Shiba and his party visited here with the main purpose of participating in the Todaiji Shunikai.
The Shunie at Todaiji’s Nigatsudo Hall was founded in 752 by Jitsunaga Jisho, a senior disciple of Todaiji’s founder Ryoben, and was held 1,273 times in 2024. The official name of Shunikai is “Juichimen kekka” (repentance in eleven faces), which means repentance for the various wrongs we commit in our daily lives in front of the treasure of the main deity of Nigatsudo, the eleven-faced Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva.
In ancient times, when Shuni-kai was first held, it meant a religious event for the nation and all people. Natural disasters, epidemics, and rebellions were considered to be diseases of the nation, and the event was held to remove such diseases and to wish for the well-being of the people, including a protected nation, peace under heaven, good weather, a good harvest, and happiness for all people. This puja is now held for two weeks from March 1, but it was originally held from February 1 of the lunar calendar, and thus came to be called “Shuni-kai,” meaning a puja held in the second month of the lunar calendar.
During the ceremony, at midnight on March 12 (around 1:30 a.m. on March 13), a ceremony called “omizutori” is held to pump “okoizui”, or “incense” to be offered to Kannon-sama from a well called “wakasai”. In addition, a large torch is lit every night to light the way for the performers of this ritual. For this reason, Shunikai is also called “Omizutori” or “Omatsumo.
On the morning of December 16 (the anniversary of Ryoben’s death), 11 monks called “Nerigyo-shu” who will perform the next year’s Shuni-kai are announced, and from February 20, the first practice called “Bekka” begins, preparing for the main practice starting on March 1. Then, from March 1 to 14, for 27 days and nights (two weeks), the main Shunigakai service is performed in Nigatsudo.
No monetary compensation is ever given for these acts, and the temple does not receive any entrance or admission fees, as is the case with other temple and shrine events. Shuni-e, a tradition that has been repeated for more than 1,000 years without interruption since the Tenpyo period, is a “sacred historical practice that characterizes Todai-ji Temple” and is part of the “culture” of Todai-ji Temple.
As Ryotaro Shiba states in “On Buddhism, Scripture, and the Mahayana Sects” the scriptures created after the death of the Buddha are flatly contradictory, and it is impossible for anyone to extract a unified answer from them. He argues that the reason why Buddhism is lumped under one name, “Buddhism,” is because it was preached by the Buddha, and there is only the Buddha’s huge ideological mood.
Buddhism is different in its essence as a religion from Christianity or Mahometanism, which are monotheistic religions and “revealed religions” based on the words of their gurus, and do not preach worship of God, only that this is the truth. The “culture” of Todaiji Temple can be considered to represent this characteristic of Buddhism.
In Nara Park, where Todai-ji Temple is located, there is also Kofuku-ji Temple and the Nara Museum, as described in “Kofuku-ji Temple and the Sacred Place of Martial Arts.
Temples throughout Japan were plunged into a crisis due to the Shinto/Buddhist Separation Order in the early Meiji period. In some regions, bells were smashed and Buddhist statues were burned, and even at Kofukuji Temple, priests changed their status to that of priests of Kasuga Shrine, resulting in the loss of priests. This led to financial difficulties for the temple, which resulted in the sale of Buddhist statues and the outflow of cultural assets overseas.
In response to this problem, a group of government minded people started a movement to create a museum to protect Buddhist statues, and the Nara Museum was opened in 1895. At that time, it was called the “Imperial Nara Museum” and became the second museum in Japan after the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno, Tokyo.
Because of this background, the Nara Museum’s collection is mainly Buddhist art, including Buddhist statues and paintings. In addition to the museum’s collection, there are many Buddhist statues deposited by temples in neighboring prefectures, and the museum’s collection covers the Asuka to Kamakura periods, with the Asuka and Nara periods in particular concentrated in Nara because the capital was located in Nara. In addition, the number of existing Buddhist statues up to the Nara period is very small, and few can be seen in other museums.
Furthermore, the director of the museum in the 1950s, Shigeru Ishida, a well-known Buddhist archaeologist, promoted specialization in Buddhist art, and while Buddhist images in ordinary temples are to be worshipped and do not necessarily need to be shown clearly, they are displayed in a composition that shows the feelings and intentions of their creators at the Nara Museum.
The Buddhist statue on display there is a standing bodhisattva from the Asuka period.
Standing statue of Buddha Shakyamuni Buddha and a perfumed tablet from the Nara period (710-794).
Visitors can see standing statues of Kongorikishi from the Nanbokucho period and other statues.
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