The Great Buddha of Kamakura

The photo above is one I took of the Great Buddha of Kamakura.

I've actually had to futz around with it because the original photo sitting in my album is so dull, it's damn near impossible to view it. It's what happens when black and white film is accidentally processed as color. So, thanks to the modern miracles of an HP Live Photo Gallery program, I was able to adjust the photo to exactly what the photo looked like when I took snapped it 20 years ago. Don't worry... I'll present the original photo down below for comparison purposes.

So... just what the hell are we all looking at? The gaijin (foreigner), of course. But seriously, this is the Great Buddha (大仏 Daibutsu), a huge outdoor bronze statue of Amida Buddha, which is a very famous iconic image of Japan.

Famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright sits on the far left.

Built in 1252,  the bronze statue was cast by either  Gorōemon Ōno (surname first) or Hisatomo Tanji (surname first), who were the leading casters at that time.

Now, just so you know... Japan has been hit with some nasty storms in the past 600 years. For example, the hall covering the statue was destroyed by a storm in 1334, was rebuilt, damaged by another storm in 1369, and was rebuilt again. The last building housing the statue was washed away by a tsunami that hit on September 20th, 1498, and has since that time the Buddha has sat out in the open. 

The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 destroyed the base of the statue, but it was repaired in 1925. Maintenance repairs to the statue were carried out in 1960-1961, when the neck was strengthened and measures were taken to protect it from earthquakes. See photo just above to see how the Buddha's neck is at an angle looking slightly to the right in this 1920's photo.

Some facts about the general make-up of this hollow statue:

• Weight - 121 tonnes (270,000 pounds);
• Height - 13.35 meter (43.8 feet);
• The statue was gilded in gold leaf, but nowadays, should you feel lucky, you can find traces of it near the Buddha's ears.

The statue resides in the Kōtoku-in (高徳院) Buddhist temple of the Jōdo-shū sect in Kamakura-shi (Kamakura City) in Kanagawa-ken (Kanagawa Prefecture), Japan.

How awesome was the Buddha? Well, it was pretty nice despite it being crawled all over by people. You can even enter the Buddha (I think you go in through his ass). There were also a score of bloody tourists. And it was raining that day (of course). You may remember me as the star of the movie "Singing In The Rain", as I played the rain man (ame otoko), as it always rained whenever I traveled about Japan. Still, in the photo, it was only just about to rain... so I got lucky.

Oh! And here's the original photo before the touch-up. I love the original because it makes it look like the photo was taken 100 years ago:

And, here's a color photo I found on Japan-Guide.com. Notice how the mountainous area YOUR right of the statue is a lot higher in the color photo than in my photo(s). The difference of 20 years? 

Cheers,
Andrew Joseph

Sofukuji's Doorway To Hell

The photo above is one of my favorite images taken while in Japan.

The thing is... it's not Japanese.

This metal plate situated about 5-feet high on an eight-foot wooden door is one of the few actual items to have survived the atomic blast that devastated Nagasaki-shi (City of Nagasaki), Nagasaki-ken (Nagasaki Prefecture) back in 1945.

The image above is a Chinese Lion door decoration of the Chinese Sofuku-ji  (崇福寺), an Ohbaku Zen Buddhist temple built by Chaonian, a Chinese monk back in 1629. I should point out that the whole temple did survive the atomic blast as well...

While people consider this temple to be spectacular looking, for me, after seeing the 1000+ temples of Kyoto, this Chinese temple seemed - ordinary. I know that's not  fair, but that's how I felt. 

The only thing that stood out for me when I visited the place back in the spring of 1991, was this damn red door and its metal decoration. 

It just looks so ... evil. Like it was a marker denoting this blood red doorway as an entrance to Hell. 

And, considering it survived the atomic blast, perhaps it was. 

As an aside... ever year between July 26 - 28, the Chinese Obon festival is held at this temple. Obon is the festival of the dead celebrated in China and Japan. And while Chinese from all over Japan come to participate in Obon here, just know that in the Buddhist tradition, there is no Heaven... only Hell.... which is where the spirits of the dead reside. 

It is during this three-day period that the dead are allowed to leave Hell and can visit their living relatives, should they actually leave the proper food and drink offerings at their family grave site to entice them to come home with them. That's the five-cent explanation of Obon... there's a great story about it HERE in Wikipedia.


And that's why I think the image above perfectly captures the spirit.     
 
The photo above was taken by myself with my Minolta SE camera using a 28mm lens and Fuji 400 color film.

For more visions of Hell in Japan, might I suggest this blog on Ghost Island; this one showing off some photography, including the third photo in of Beppu; and this one of a famous Rodin sculpture of the Gates of Hell residing in Tokyo - it's right at the bottom of the blog. 

Cheers,
Andrew Joseph