💦THE MEDICINE BUDDHA'S LOTUSES🪷
dew from a lotus-
plenty
for morning tea
蓮の露一つもあまる朝茶哉
-Kobayashi Issa (小林一茶), 1819.
Trans. David Lanoue.
When his consort fell deathly sick in 680, Emperor Tenmu (天武天皇) ordered the construction of Yakushi-ji (薬師寺) as a prayer for her recovery.
The emperor's act of devotion worked, and his consort not only survived, but went on to succeed him as Empress Jitō (持統天皇 645-703).
Yakushi-ji originally stood beneath Mt. Miminashi in Kashihara (耳成山)/橿原), site of the then capital, Fujiwara-kyō (藤原京 694-710).
#lotusflowers #lotus #蓮
By the time construction work finished on the temple in 698, Emperor Tenmu (天武天皇) had been dead for 12 years.
A decade later work began on the new capital, Heijō-kyō (平城京 - modern Nara), and in 718 Yakushi-ji was partly dismantled and moved to its new (current) home.
#Japan #Nara
Yakushi-ji was counted as one of the original "Nanto Shichi Daiji" (南都七大寺), the "7 Great Temples of the Southern Capital" (Nara).
🪷Daian-ji (大安寺)
🪷Gangō-ji (元興寺)
🪷Hōryū-ji (法隆寺)
🪷Kōfuku-ji (興福寺)
🪷Saidai-ji (西大寺)
🪷Tōdai-ji (東大寺)
🪷Yakushi-ji (薬師寺)
There is evidence that for a long time two Yakushi-ji's existed: the original temple in Fujiwara-kyō (known as 'Moto Yakushi-ji' 元薬師寺 the 'Original Yakushi-ji') and its new iteration in Nara.
When completed in 726 Yakushi-ji sprawled over 12 city blocks!
#Nara #奈良 #平城京
Yakushi-ji's Tō-tō (東塔), dating to 730, is considered to be one of Japan's most beautiful pagodas.
Art historian Ernest Fenollosa (1853-1908) described the 34m tall structure as 'frozen music'...alluding to the pagoda's 'rhythmical symmetry' and to the fretwork of the finial.
Most temples in Japan have incense for worshippers to make offerings.
Leave a donation, take the stick (or bundle of sticks), and light it from the flame provided.
Do not light from another, already burning incense.
Place the incense in the cauldron or stand provided, and pray.
One interesting feature, just outside the grounds of Yakushi-ji, is a black post box.
In Kyōto and Nara it is common to find subdued colours close to important heritage sites. Even convenience stores are obliged to tone down their bright signs.
Growing from muddy pond beds into beautiful flowers, lotuses have long been symbols of wisdom and renewal.
It is said that Buddha could walk from birth, and everywhere he went lotus flowers bloomed from his footprints👣
There are over 800 varieties of the plant😇
Camellia Tea Ceremony
Alex Stewart