Japanese Buddhist Sculptures
Yesterday’s visit to Toji Temple has made me consider visiting to see Buddhist sculptures in Kyoto and around. Not that I’m becoming religious. I’m actually not sympathetic at all with most sects of Japanese Buddhism (except Zen). But I’m curious how buddhist monks in the past “designed” their preaching to reach the public via sculptures and their installations. Toji Temple’s approach was powerful enough to make me curious.
But Japanese Buddhism is very complicated. There are many sects, each interpreting Buddha’s preaching in a different way. And there are so many, often mutually-contradicting, characters in the story of Buddhism. There are not only Gautama Buddha (釈迦如来) himself but also the buddhas in other worlds such as Amitabha (阿弥陀如来). Each buddha usually takes a different pair of disciples known as bodhisattva (菩薩). Buddhas sometimes morph into wisdom kings (明王) to scold the public. And there are Hindu gods (天部) who have converted into Buddhism. And there are more…
Are you still with me? :-)
All these characters have been sculpted (or represented by large natural stones in Zen gardens) for people to worship at Buddhist temples across Japan.
Luckily I have found a nice book in Japanese, making approachable all these different types of Buddhist deities with a lovely manga:
The manga story goes like this: A 26-years-old shy lady, Tomoko (see the bottom-right of the above image), is job-hunting after quitting her previous job. She has applied an internship at Buddha Company. On the first day of internship, she is introduced to the CEO, Gautama Buddha :-). From next day on, she goes on to meet each “employee” of the company and help them a bit with their jobs to save people.
Those former Hindu gods are portrayed as the rank-and-file employees because those who have changed a job won’t be able to climb the corporate ladder in a typical Japanese company where life-time employment is still the norm in the 21st century. :-)
With this book in hand, maybe going out to see buddhas will be my life in Kyoto for next few months.
