Looking For Sakyamuni

[camerata]

Taking a break from the mountain temples of the Saigoku Kannon pilgrimage

last week, I thought it might be fun to see what I could find out about

Sakyamuni in Japan.

It seems that in 538 the very first Buddha image to arrive in Japan was a

statue of Sakyamuni (generally known as Shaka or Shaka Nyorai in Japan)

presented as a gift by a Korean king. Perhaps that's why in the Asuka

period, Shaka was one of the principal objects of reverence. Images at

that time were usually seated and had two attendants.

The most well-known of those early images still in existence are the Asuka

Temple Great Buddha (the oldest positively dated image in Japan) and the

Shaka Triad at Horyuji Temple. The 4.8m bronze Great Buddha looks pretty

beaten-up now, after extensive damage caused by fire, earthquakes and bad

restoration work:

The Horyuji Triad is in better condition but has a rather angular

appearance, having been influenced by a similar image carved in stone in

northern China:

A 9th century Shaka Nyorai at Muroji Temple (also in Nara prefecture) is a

lot different in style:

However, it seems Shaka wasn't of particular interest in Japan for several

hundred years. In 985 the monk Chonen went to China on pilgrimage to China

and commissioned a copy of the legendary Udayana Buddha. As the story

goes, King Udayana had a sculpture of Sakyamuni made from sandalwood while

he (the Buddha) was alive, which was worshipped in India for 1280

years and then taken over the Himalayas to China. Records show that the

image was moved from temple to temple for various reasons and finally lost

in the upheaval surrounding the so-called Boxer Rebellion in 1900. Only a

painting now remains of the original Udayana Buddha:

Chonen brought his copy back and installed it in Seiryoji Temple in NW

Kyoto but it failed to arouse much interest until the mid-13th century:

Ritsu (or Risshu) - meaning "Vinaya" - one of the original six sects of

Nara had long since gone into decline, but in 1249 the priest Eison

ordered a copy of the Seiryoji Shaka and installed it as the principal

object of worship at the large Saidaiji temple in Nara. Eison's promotion

of Ritsu and this Seiryoji style Sakyamuni image led to a revival of the

Ritsu sect and a cult of Sakyamuni at a time when other new sects like

Pure Land and Nichiren were popular with the masses.

Many copies were made and new temples built in this Saidaiji lineage.

Although the cult didn't last long, these images are the ones you can see

around Kyoto and Kamakura now. The dynamic walking style (one hand in the

"come and see" mudra, the other in the teaching mudra) of the image may

have appealed to the masses as Sakyamuni was seen as the one who spread

the teachings, even if he couldn't grant wishes or save you like Kannon or

Amida.

The Seiryoji Shaka is shown on the 8th of the month, so I was able to see

it last week. There were sermons all afternoon at the temple and the monks

all chanted "Namu Amida Butsu" after each sermon (it's a Pure Land

temple).

A nearby temple (Nison-in) has a "twin image" of Shaka and Amida,

representing the teaching that Shaka enlightens you in this world and

Amida saves you in the next.

The only other Shaka I found in Kyoto was another Seiryoji style image at

Saimyoji in the mountains to the northwest. This area is famous for its

maple trees and an adjacent temple sells clay disks which you throw over a

precipice into the valley below. They take your bad karma with them. The

girl in front of me - dressed in standard maple-viewing dress of

miniskirt, high-heeled boots and fluffy sweater managed to hit the metal

rail at the cliff edge with her disk. You're supposed to say a prayer

before you throw the disk but I guess no one bothers these days.

Sakyamuni is still venerated by the Zen sects, Ritsu and Nichiren.

All in all, there aren't that many images of Sakymuni compared to other

Buddhist "deities" and Buddhas in Japan, but it's interesting that many of

them are copies of King Udayana's Buddha.

[Abandon]

I thought that the nichiren school did not vererate Sakyamuni, saying that since the desire to get enlightened is a desire, you are doomed to failiure from the start. hence the saviour Nichiren used 'desire transformation' as the main practise.

[camerata]

According to my book on Buddhist images, Sakyamuni is the one doing all the teaching in the all-important Lotus Sutra and Prabhutaratna appears as a kind of witness. So the main object of worship in Nichiren temples is a scroll bearing the mantra Hail to the Sutra of the Lotus of the Wonderful Law. Figures of Sakyamuni and Prabhutaratna are displayed beside the scroll. But Nichiren was very much against the idea of using one's own efforts to reach Nirvana.

A couple of points I forgot to mention earlier:

There is an important Shaka Nyorai image in the oldest temple building on Mount Hiei, northeast of Kyoto.

Like other Mahayana images, Japanese Buddha images had their origin in the Northern Indian style that was influenced by Greek sculpture. SE Asian images had their origin in the purely Indian style sculpture from the south of India.

[sabaijai]

Nice photos, camerata.

Like other Mahayana images, Japanese Buddha images had their origin in the Northern Indian style that was influenced by Greek sculpture. SE Asian images had their origin in the purely Indian style sculpture from the south of India.

In the case of Buddhist architecture, many styles that developed in Japan's early years originated in Korea. During Japanese domination of Korea, the Japanese appropriated many Korean Buddhist artworks - including entire stupas - from Korea and took them to Japan.

Korean Buddhist art, in turn, came from China, while early Chinese Buddhist art took its inspiration from northern India and Tibet. Chinese missionaries also had access to Buddhist art in SE Asia, including central Thailand (Dvaravati) and central Java.

Gandhara (Greek-Indian) influence would have crept in via Taxila, perhaps, but there would ahve been many other sources as well. In the Udayana Buddha painting you posted I see some affinity with Gupta art as well, which could have come directly from India or from Dvaravati, where most Buddhist sculpture was based on Gupta models.