Failed talks over statue by Korean and Japanese Buddhist monks

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Japanese monks seeking return of Gwaneum Bosal statue, while Koreans say it could have been plundered from Korea

Tokyo, Japan -- Monks from Buseok Temple in Seosan, South Chungcheong Province, visited Kannon Temple on the Japanese island of Tsushima to discuss the issue of the Buddha (Gwaneum Bosal) statue, but the talks failed when Japanese Kannon Temple monks declined to meet.

According to reports by Japanese media including Kyodo News and the Tokyo Shimbun, a group including a monk from Buseok Temple named Wonu, another monk, and former lawmaker Kim Won-ung visited Kannon Temple but the monks there refused to discuss the issue. Later, the Kannon Temple monks were quoted in Japanese media as saying, ?The statue of Buddha must be quickly returned.?

The Buseok Temple monks said that they had visited the Japanese temple to communicate the message that it would probably not be possible to return the statue, considering that it was believed to have been plundered from Korea and taken to Japan.

The Japanese government has also made several requests for the Buddhist statue to be returned. ?We are asking the Korean government to return the statue of Buddha according to the bilateral agreement between our two countries,? said Yoshihide Suga, Japanese chief cabinet secretary, in a press conference. The position of the Japanese government is that, regardless of the circumstances through which Kannon Temple came to possess the statue, since it came into Korea after being stolen from Kannon, it should be returned according to the agreement governing cultural items.

The Buddhist statue was made at Buseok Temple in Seosan around AD 1330, but it was subsequently taken to Japan and enshrined in Kannon Temple. In Oct. 2012, it was brought back into Korea by thieves. When the Korean government nabbed the thieves and confiscated the statue, Japan requested its return.

However, in Feb. 2013, a Korean court issued an injunction forbidding the statue to be returned to Japan until such a time as a lawsuit confirms that Kannon Temple acquired the statue through just means.

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‘Sanjusangen-do’ - A splendid collection of Japanese Buddhist art

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Kyoto, Japan - The Temple of Sanjusangen-do located in Kyoto, Japan, housing over 1000 wood-carved, gold-leaf-covered, statues of religious figures dating from the Thirteen Century, is one of the most outstanding cultural treasures of Japanese Buddhism.

The Temple of the Lotus King

<< Japanese-style garden at Sanjusangen-do Buddhist Temple, Kyoto, Japan. The Main Hall can be seen in the background.

The official name of this Buddhist temple is “Renge-o-in”, meaning “Temple of the Lotus King”, but it’s better known as “Sanjusangen-do”, meaning “Hall of the 33 spaces between columns”. This name refers to the 33 spaces between the pillars holding the roof of the 120-meter-long hall, considered one of the world’s longest wooden structures.

The number 33 has a special meaning in Buddhist religion. It relates to the 33 forms that Kannon, the Lord of Compassion, or the Goddess of Mercy, can adopt for the purpose of saving humans from danger and distress, and confer prosperity and happiness to those who pray.

In Buddhism, Kannon’s gender is imprecise; it could be male or female, with the principal attribute of being one “who sees and hears” all those who struggle and plead for help and salvation. Kannon, one of the most widely worshipped divinities in Japan and all Asia is a “Bodhisattva” (a.k.a. Bosatsu), meaning a being who has enough merits to achieve “enlightenment” (reaching Nirvana), but remains behind to listen to people’s problems and help those in trouble.

Sanjusangen-do temple dates from 1164. It was built in Kyoto at the request of Emperor Go-Shirakawa (1127 – 1192), who was a respectful devotee to Kannon Bodhisattva and made great efforts to bring peace and prosperity to his country by propagating the Buddhist faith. The original hall had only 124 standing statues of Kannon. In 1249, the building was lost in a fire, but the statues were saved. The hall was reconstructed in 1266 in the same style as the original structure. Since 1266, the building has been renovated four times, but its general appearance remains about the same as it was in the XIII Century.

The work of sculptor Tankei

The acclaimed Japanese sculptor Tankei (1173 – 1256), with two nephews and about 70 of his disciples, Buddhist sculptors from Kyoto and Nara, restored the original 124 statues saved from the fire, created the large, central seated statue of the Goddess of Mercy, carved 876 additional figures of the Kannon Bosatsu, the 28 guardian deities charged with defending Buddhism and protecting all the Kannon images, plus two additional statues representing the gods of wind and thunder.

Currently, the temple houses 1,031 statues, which as a group is probably the largest and finest collection of Buddhist Art in Japan. These statues are considered a National Treasure or valued as Important Cultural Property of Japan.

<< Part of the 1000 images of the Kannon Bodhisattva at Sanjusangen-do Temple. Some of the 28 attendants or Guardian Deities can be seen in the front row.

The temple’s principal deity, Senju Kannon or the Goddess of Mercy, is a 3.4-metre-high seated image of hollow multi-block construction, coated with a lacquered finish and covered with gold-leaf. The image has the hands pressed together in front of her chest, as a sign of being respected.

At each side of the principal image, there are 500 life-size (about 1.6 meters tall) Kannon statues carved in Japanese cypress and also covered with gold-leaf. They are placed on ascending platforms in 10 rows of 50 statues.

The 1000 statues are very similar; however slight differences can be observed in the expression of the eyes and the face of each image. Additionally, some statues are thinner than the others and in some cases the clothing also shows small differences.

Twenty-eight Guardian Deities In a straight line, in front of the rows of Kannon images, there are 30 statues representing 28 Guardian Deities which are attendants or protectors of Kannon and those who respect and believe in Kannon. Standing at each end of the front row, there are two images portraying Raijin, the God of Thunder and Fujin, the God of Wind. The images of the guardians originate in Indian Buddhism, and they have Japanese names, but are also known by their names in Sanskrit, the ancient Indo-Aryan language used as academic, literary and sacred language of Hinduism and Buddhism.

These statues are also life-size and measure between 1.56 and 1,70 metres. Depending on their function or mythical attributes, they have either peaceful expressions and hold musical instruments, or they have fierce, irate expressions, show muscular bodies or wear armor and hold weapons. Several statues have crystal eye-balls conveying a realistic expression to the eyes and face.

The statues of Sanjusangen-do are a significant example of the cultural legacy and the impact of Indian Buddhism on Japan’s political, religious, and artistic development. Each statue in this temple, including the 1001 images of Kannon and the guardian deities, is independently very beautiful, but the impact of over a thousand of them remaining together for over seven centuries, and being displayed as a group, is breathtaking.

Photography is not permitted inside the temple. This report contains pictures taken on the grounds of the temple, images photographed by the author of this report from a book on the subject, and one image found online.

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Sanjusangen-do is located in the eastern section of Kyoto, about a 5-minute walk from Keihan Shichijo Station, or 3-minute walk from City Bus Stop “Hakubutsukan-Sanjusangendo-mae”. Open every day: 8 am - 5 pm (9 am – 4 pm from 16 Nov. to 31st Mar.). Cost: JPY 600 (Approx. US$7).

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/341524#ixzz2ITgx2Mds

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Japanese Buddhists to mark 100 years in Utah

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Salt Lake City, Utah (USA) -- Japanese Buddhism arrived in the heartland of Mormonism more than 100 years ago with migrant workers who took jobs with Utah mines, farms and railroads.

And they brought their faith and desire for spiritual community with them.

By 1912, these Buddhists created their first congregation in Ogden, known as the "Intermountain Buddhist Church." A few years later, it moved to Salt Lake City.

Through the years, several additional Japanese Buddhist churches sprang up across the state, with membership ebbing and flowing with the times. World War II, for example, brought Japanese Americans to the Topaz internment camp in west-central Utah. Many brought their family shrines with them and stayed after the war.

In recent years, longtime members have been joined by American converts.

Now these Buddhists are celebrating their centennial on Sept. 15 with a daylong event, "Walking the Path of Enlightenment."

"Today, Jodo Shinshu Buddhism in Utah is not limited to Japanese Buddhists," writes event organizer Karie Minaga-Miya in a release. "There is a welcomed diversity of ethnicity, cultural background and community to provide a robust and optimistic future."

The day will feature an opening service conducted by the Rev. Kodo Umezu, bishop of Buddhist Churches of America. Workshops will include presentations on Taiko Buddhism and Jodo Shinshu as well as discussion of reasons to embrace Buddhist teachings.

The event will be held at the Salt Palace Convention Center in downtown Salt Lake City from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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Japanese Buddhists celebrate 100 years in Utah

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SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (USA) -- Japanese Buddhist filled the Jodo Shinshu temples of Utah on Saturday to celebrate 100 years of Buddhism in the state.

Japanese Buddhism arrived in Utah with migrant workers who took jobs with Utah farms, mines and railroads. Over the years, many Japanese Buddhist church popped up across the state with increasing membership.

They gathered at the Salt Palace Convention Center in downtown Salt Lake City to celebrate the centennial with the “Walking the Path of Enlightenment” event.

Japanese Buddhists say that while their religion stays the same, their diversity continues to grow.

“I think originally that most of them were Japanese Buddhists and now the diversity of Buddhists here…is a very welcomed diversity of people,” said Karie Minaga-Miya, Buddhist Centennial Celebration chair.

Some local Buddhists say they hope for a unique American form of Buddhism to evolve over the next century.

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Japanese minister visits Shrawasti, assures support

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BAHRAICH, India -- In a bid to explore opportunities of development of Buddhist tourist places in Uttar Pradesh, the Japanese finance minister Navkaju Takemoto along with the speaker of UP assembly Mata Prasad Pandey and state minister Balram Singh Yadav visited the International Buddhist places in Shrawasti. The delegation also visited Jetwan Vihar, Denmahamkol and the huts of Maheta.

During the Saturday visit, the Japanese minister Takemoto told media persons that Japan not only has economic relations with India, but it also has the historical and cultural ties for centuries and the Japanese government would extend every possible assistance to India for the improvement of roads and electricity at Buddhist tourist places.

The Japanese minister added that his visit to India is to explore the opportunities of these developments. On this occasion Mata Prasad Pandey said that action plan for the development of Buddhist tourist places of UP including Shrawasti is being prepared and very shortly the developmental schemes of roads and electricity would get underway at Buddhist places with the assistance of Japan.

The state minister Balram Singh Yadav said that schemes are being made to convert the Buddhist tourist places of Uttar Pradesh into an eco-tourism circuit.

The Japanese minister said that a medical college-cum-hospital would be constructed on the land of Lord Buddha. He said a medical college would be built at Kapilvastu and Shrawasti. The Japanese minister also said that his country makes every possible effort for the development of Buddhist places.

He said that he is feeling himself blessed to have visited the land of Lord Buddha. The Japanese minister said that Uttar Pradesh is just double in size from Japan, but it is far behind as far as electricity and development is concerned and his government wants to set up a power plant in UP and co-operate in development.

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Japanese monk guards remains of tsunami unknown

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YAMAMOTO, Japan -- Hundreds of the 19,000 people killed by Japan's horrific quake-tsunami remain unmourned, their bodies never claimed because there is no one left to notice they have gone.

<< Buddhist monk Ryushin Miyabe offering prayers in front of urns with ashes and bones of tsunami victims at the Myokoin Temple in Yamamoto. Photo courtesy: AFP

But one Buddhist monk has lovingly stored the ashes and bones of some of those whose names no one knows in the hope that one day they can be reunited with their families.

Every day for the last year, Ryushin Miyabe has offered prayers and lit incense for the souls in his care at the Myokoin temple in Yamamoto, a small town on Japan's tsunami-wrecked coast.

In late January he was finally able to hand over the remains of a five-year-old boy, known until then only as "No. 906", when the child's grandmother was identified through DNA tests.

The young corpse had been cremated in June after coastguards found it floating in the Pacific without any belongings, washed out to sea by the tsunami of March 11 that tore into the coast.

The grandmother told Miyabe that the boy's mother had also been killed in the catastrophe and she had been searching for her grandson's body for nearly a year.

With the boy's remains back with a family member, his spirit can pass into the next world, says Miyabe.

"I guess the boy has met his mother in heaven by now," he said. "She must have told him: 'Hey, you are late!'"

Buddhist tradition dictates that a body is cremated and the ashes are placed in an urn, along with the bones that remain.

The urn is put in a family grave, which Japanese traditionally believe to be the gateway to the next world, one through which souls can return every year during the summer festival of Obon.

The grave must be cared for by surviving family, who in return, expect spiritual protection from their deceased relatives.

Nationwide, 500 bodies recovered after the huge waves swept ashore have still not been identified, and more than 3,000 of those who died have never been found.

At one point Miyabe was looking after the ashes of 30 people, their remains entrusted to him by authorities overwhelmed by the number of people who perished.

After the five-year-old was reunited with his family, Miyabe's temple has only one small jar left.

"I will continue holding vigil, praying for the earliest return of the ashes to the victim's family who must be desperately trying to find the body," Miyabe said.

The majority of those who died in the tsunami were identified before being cremated and their families wanted full funeral rites.

Mortician Ruiko Sasahara prepared more than 300 often badly damaged bodies at makeshift morgues in tsunami-hit coastal towns, to allow relatives to bid their farewells.

As well as making funeral arrangements, morticians in Japan clean, dress and apply cosmetics to bodies in an effort to make them look as much like they did when they were alive as possible.

"My job is to help prepare the dead for their departure to heaven," Sasahara said at her office in Kitakami, 60 kilometres (35 miles) from the tsunami coast.

The practice, which is fading in bigger cities but remains fairly common in rural areas, came to worldwide attention in 2009 when "Departures" won an Oscar for its depiction of an out of work cellist who becomes a mortician in small town Japan.

Many of the bodies that Sasahara was called upon to patch up were in bad condition.

"I'd never seen bodies in such a state -- many of them smelled of decay, there was a lot of maggot damage and some of them were partial skeletons," she said.

But she knew that families desperately needed to be able to say their goodbyes and even resorted to using clippings from her own hair to remake eyelashes and eyebrows.

Sasahara said the process of repair is vital to protect the dignity of the dead and to ease the pain of those left behind.

"Many of the bereaved blame themselves for failing to save their loved ones," she said.

"When they once again see the smile of the person they lost, I think many people can feel they have been forgiven."

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Monk who is sold on ISB: Japanese creating management model to attract Gen Y to Buddhist temple

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Keisuke Matsumoto is creating a management model to help Buddhist temples in Japan attract Gen Y based on his learnings from the Hyderabad B-school, reports Kala Vijayraghavan

Tokyo, Japan -- A year ago, a 32-year-old Buddhist monk completed a post-graduate programme from the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, the B-school that's known to have everyone from dancers to scuba divers as students.

Keisuke Matsumoto from the Komyoji temple in Japan is now busy putting to practice his learnings by creating a new management model for modern Buddhist temples in Japan. His focus is to attract more members of the millennial generation to these places of worship.

Matsumoto is working on updating Buddhist temples to meet the modern needs of people without disturbing their religious traditions.

He is also recommending the MBA programme of ISB to other monks so that they can pick up basic lessons in management that can help in running temples and coping with issues better through analytical and strategic thinking.

Komyoji is an old temple - one version has it that it may have been built as long back as in 1240 -- located in the centre of Tokyo and belongs to Jodo-Shinshu Hongwanjiha, one of the most popular traditional Buddhist schools in Japan. The temple location has several corporate offices and Matsumoto is keen to innovate to attract youngsters working in the area.

"As a Buddhist monk, being an MBA graduate doesn't make any difference to my position or rank in the temple. But it makes a difference to the quality of my work," says Matsumoto. "While Buddhism is my life, I am not satisfied with its current situation. To promote Buddhism among modern people, we have to make it more relevant," he adds.

One way to do that is via management studies. For instance, Matsumoto points out that he is now applying management guru Michael Porter's Five Forces Analysis - a framework to determine the attractiveness of a market - to develop strategies to manage temples.

Matsumoto has also launched the Young Buddhist Association with the help of college friends and has hosted a music concert in the premises of the temple.

Before embarking on his MBA, Matsumoto had opened a cafe-like open space in the temple where visitors - who have made appointments in advance - can relax with a beverage and snacks. "I don't ask visitors to donate money. It completely depends on the visitor's will. The objective of the temple cafe is not for business or to make money. It is a communication centre between temple and visitors," explains Matsumoto.

Since returning to the temple with an MBA in tow, Matsumoto has re-jigged the temple cafe. Initially, it was conceived as a place for relaxation and comfort as well as an opportunity to throw in some teachings about Buddhism to visitors. "But after ISB, I have noticed that the project also has another important role from the marketing perspective.

At the temple cafe, I can get extremely useful information from visitors about how people see Buddhism, what kind of activities are expected in the temple, and how we can improve our service," says the monk. "So I redefined the temple cafe from just a service delivery place into a centre for communication between temple and people," he adds.

Matsumoto has done a joint research on "Buddhism and economy" and personal research on "performance measurement in modern Buddhist temples." According to him, Buddhist monks in Japan are expected to double up as good managers as well as a religious leader, and there is a critical shortage of monks who have good management skills. Matsumoto is now sharing his learnings at ISB about effective ways of management with other monks.

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