Granite Buddha sees daylight after 400 years

The Asahi Shimbun
2008/10/27

MIZUNAMI, Gifu Prefecture, Japan — A Buddha carved on a slab of granite was revealed for the first time in 400 years, after layers of mud applied by worshipers were removed Saturday.

The principal image of Tanaka Doro Yakushi shrine was carved on a piece of granite 95 centimeters tall and 43 cm wide. It was not clear exactly when the image was created.

According to legend, a person’s ailments will be cured if he or she rubs mud on the equivalent body part of the Buddha.

P.S. Pictures are not available yet in the Net.

Buddhism In Japan May Be Dying Out

By NORIMITSU ONISHI

The Japanese have long taken an easygoing, buffetlike approach to religion, ringing out the old year at Buddhist temples and welcoming the new year, several hours later, at Shinto shrines. Weddings hew to Shinto rituals or, just as easily, to Christian ones.

When it comes to funerals, though, the Japanese have traditionally been inflexibly Buddhist — so much so that Buddhism in Japan is often called “funeral Buddhism,” a reference to the religion’s former near-monopoly on the elaborate, and lucrative, ceremonies surrounding deaths and memorial services.

But that expression also describes a religion that, by appearing to cater more to the needs of the dead than to those of the living, is losing its standing in Japanese society.

“That’s the image of funeral Buddhism: that it doesn’t meet people’s spiritual needs,” said Ryoko Mori, the chief priest at the 700-year-old Zuikoji Temple here in northern Japan. “In Islam or Christianity, they hold sermons on spiritual matters. But in Japan nowadays, very few Buddhist priests do that.”

Mr. Mori, 48, the 21st head priest of the temple, was unsure whether it would survive into the tenure of a 22nd.

“If Japanese Buddhism doesn’t act now, it will die out,” he said. “We can’t afford to wait. We have to do something.”

Picture: Ko Sasaki for The New York Times

Across Japan, Buddhism faces a confluence of problems, some familiar to religions in other wealthy nations, others unique to the faith here. Read more »