After a busy week in Japan, we had a free day on 10th November. All of us decided to spend it by exploring different places not in the decided itinerary. Some of us went to Odaiba to entertain themselves with famous video games and amusement park. Whereas I being interested in history and religion decided to go to Kamakura .
I was fortunate to have the company of Yamaguchi sir (Hiroyuki Yamaguchi ), who agreed to guide me after requesting at the last moment. We were also joined by Tamaki Nogawa, Yamaguchi sir's friend.
We started at 8:30 in the morning by taking a train to Shinjuku, followed by a travel in the famous small train of Enoshima known as the Enoden.
Then began the visit to a series of temples, starting with the Kotokuin temple also known as the temple of great Buddha or Daibutsu. This statue of Buddha is huge and an interesting fact about it is that you can climb up into the statue as, it is hollow from within and is an evidence of great skills of the sculptors .
Second temple that we visited was the Hasedera temple. It is the temple of the Kannon (Kannon means bodhisattva who hears the thoughts and wishes of people ). It has the biggest wooden sculpture of Japan with eleven faces.
(Pictures of interiors of the temples cannot be uploaded due to temple policies.)
Tsurugaoka Hachimangu the temple of the guardian god of the samurais, was the third spot we went to. This was followed by lunch.
In the later part of the day, we continued the tour with visits to Hokokuji, the Bamboo temple and Kenchoji temple, where we practiced Zen meditation for one hour. It was a purifying spiritual experience with the sonorous rhythm of bells and fragrance of incense.
I and Tamaki san also tried our hands at calligraphy by tracing a sutra written in Kanji. It was a "dream come true" for me as I had been waiting for long to visit atleast one Japanese temple. I encountered a lot of similarities in the religious and social practices followed in Indian and Japanese temples like washing hands with water as a sign of purification, ringing the bell to get the attention of deity, , lucky charms for prosperity, fortune telling in the temple premises etc.
I was fortunate to have the company of Yamaguchi sir (Hiroyuki Yamaguchi ), who agreed to guide me after requesting at the last moment. We were also joined by Tamaki Nogawa, Yamaguchi sir's friend.
We started at 8:30 in the morning by taking a train to Shinjuku, followed by a travel in the famous small train of Enoshima known as the Enoden.
Then began the visit to a series of temples, starting with the Kotokuin temple also known as the temple of great Buddha or Daibutsu. This statue of Buddha is huge and an interesting fact about it is that you can climb up into the statue as, it is hollow from within and is an evidence of great skills of the sculptors .
Second temple that we visited was the Hasedera temple. It is the temple of the Kannon (Kannon means bodhisattva who hears the thoughts and wishes of people ). It has the biggest wooden sculpture of Japan with eleven faces.
(Pictures of interiors of the temples cannot be uploaded due to temple policies.)
Tsurugaoka Hachimangu the temple of the guardian god of the samurais, was the third spot we went to. This was followed by lunch.
In the later part of the day, we continued the tour with visits to Hokokuji, the Bamboo temple and Kenchoji temple, where we practiced Zen meditation for one hour. It was a purifying spiritual experience with the sonorous rhythm of bells and fragrance of incense.
I and Tamaki san also tried our hands at calligraphy by tracing a sutra written in Kanji. It was a "dream come true" for me as I had been waiting for long to visit atleast one Japanese temple. I encountered a lot of similarities in the religious and social practices followed in Indian and Japanese temples like washing hands with water as a sign of purification, ringing the bell to get the attention of deity, , lucky charms for prosperity, fortune telling in the temple premises etc.
Dear Ambika,
ReplyDeleteWere you alone interested in the history and religion? If it is so I appreciate Prof.Yamaguchi and his friend Tamaki Nogawa who accompanied you to show some of famous temples in Japan. You must have had wonderful experience of Zen meditation. But I did not understand what is this term "Zen"?
Why you did not post some pictures of these temples you visited?
Dear Sir,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your precious comment. I could not post pictures due to some technical difficulties, but now I have updated the post.
Zen is a type of Japanese Buddhism.