United States or Ghana ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Below this Sai-no-Kawara scene appears yet another shadow-world, a wilderness of bamboos! Only white-robed shapes of women appear in it. They are weeping; the fingers of all are bleeding. With finger-nails plucked out must they continue through centuries to pick the sharp-edged bamboo-grass. Fourth kakemono: Floating in glory, Dai-Nichi-Nyorai, Kwannon-Sama, Amida Buddha.
An exclamation uttered to call the attention of another to the presence of the speaker, from the respectful verb "to say." Our colloquial "say" does not give the proper meaning. Our "please" comes nearer to it. Now, strange to say, on the night of the seventh day after she had vowed this vow, there came to her in a dream Kwannon-Sama who said to her: "The prayer which you prayed I shall grant."
There are also images of the Sea-goddess Benten and of Kwannon-Sama, seated on summits of mountains forming the upper part of miniature landscapes made of some unfamiliar composition, and beautifully coloured; the whole being protected from careless fingering by strong wire nettings stretched across the front of the little shrines containing the panorama.
The guide approaches his light to the face of each one, and utters a name, 'Daikoku-Sama, 'Fudo-Sama, 'Kwannon-Sama. Sometimes in lieu of a statue there is an empty shrine only, with a money-box before it; and these void shrines have names of Shinto gods, 'Daijingu, 'Hachiman, 'Inari-Sama. All the statues are black, or seem black in the yellow lamplight, and sparkle as if frosted.
And he recited a sutra, and repeated the Nenbutsu, praying for inspiration; and even while he prayed there came and stood before him an aged man and an aged woman; and these said to him, 'We know that your desire is to have the image of Kwannon-Sama carved from this tree with the help of Heaven; continue therefore, to pray, and we shall carve the statue.
Here also is Buddha slumbering, with the gentlest, softest Japanese face a child face and eyes closed, and hand pillowing the cheek, in Nirvana. Here is a beautiful virgin-figure, standing upon a lily: Kwannon-Sama, the Japanese Madonna.
Word Of The Day