Comments | chronarchy: Piety on the pilgrimage

chronarchy

Piety on the pilgrimage

Feb 07, 2007 13:41

"A mountain temple, Senyuji stands out for having had its main image carved by a woman. The figure of the thousand-armed Kannon was carved in the seventh century by a young woman, who is supposed to have prostrated herself after every cut of the knife. Several of the temples where the main image was carved by the Daishi also claim this kind of ( Read more... )

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Comments 10

whitmanschild February 7 2007, 19:53:48 UTC

If you're thinking of making a pilgrimage to southern Japan, and if you don't think it will be temple overload for you, I think you should also visit Koyasan in northern Wakayama. There are almost 100 temples on the mountain there. It's stunning. You can get there on a direct train/cable car from Osaka ( ... )

snakesinspace February 7 2007, 23:37:25 UTC

When he completes the "88" temple Shikoku pilgrimage with me (something I have already done and the reason I am now in Japan) we would go to Koyasan (somewhere I have already been) as it is a required stop in connection with the pilgrimage.

viedansante February 7 2007, 20:05:50 UTC

The process for carving in this instance reminds me of a process for making runes.

Thanks for sharing that.

Oh, and I also someday would like to make the Shikoku pilgrimage.

smithing_chick February 7 2007, 20:20:33 UTC

I'm trying to imagine carving a statue like that- stopping with each & every stroke to pray. It would probably drive me nuts, since I tend to just want to keep going. I could pray *while* carving easily enough but the stopping would make it very hard to connect with the piece I was working on.

tesinth February 7 2007, 22:50:45 UTC

Ah, nice citation of sources, don't see enough of that on LJ these days... :)

chronarchy February 8 2007, 13:16:48 UTC

That's because most LJer's don't care. :)

Whinings of "Oh, it's my personal journal!" preclude any need for academic accountability.

snakesinspace February 12 2007, 13:30:27 UTC

Honey, that whining happens everywhere, not just on LJ. ;D

snakesinspace February 7 2007, 23:45:06 UTC

I still cannot believe how much that book (the Readicker-Henderson) sucked in regards to the 88 temple pilgrimage (I did manage to find my own copy too), his observations were often typically "gajin" (re: stereotypical Marco Polo syndrome that many European and North American people have when visiting or living in Japan).

By the way, it is not the only pilgrimage in Shikoku (duh), when you come we'll have to overlap the 88 with one to Fudo just because I believe Fudo can be traced to Agni and I think it would be interesting to see.

I look forward to walking through the first ten temples in a few days to begin the second official trek on the pilgrimage (with the Japanese way of doing it I actually just "completed" it for a fourth time yesterday with my Shingon Buddist teacher, a Revered who lives in Tokyo).

I am praying for a farm house. Moving back to Japan, to be on Shikoku (and thus closer to the pilgrimage and Kobo Daishi) is an act of piety for me.