On Thursday a friend of mine invited me to join her and another friend for dinner. However, I found an event that was happening that seemed very interesting so I had to turn my friend down. Instead, I went to Oeshiki. Oeshiki is a Buddhist memorial service held every year over a three-day period (Oct.11-13) to remember the illustrious memory of Nichiren Shonin. Nichiren Shonin founded Ikegami Honmonji Temple just before he died in October 1282. On the evening of October 12 which is called "Otiya" about a hundred Mandos (10,000 lights) carried by groups called Kojyu gather at Honmonji from many places in a parade. On Otaiya, the temple is usually filled with 300,000 visitors. I met with a group at Gotanda and we made our way to the temple. It was absolutely amazing. There were so many people! I don't think I have ever seen that many people at a festival. I made sure to go into the temple and check it out. While I was waiting for the others I saw a sign that advertised free tours in English. We got the tour, but because there were six of wanting the tour, we had to split into two groups. The lady in charge of my group was really nice. She gave us a nice tour around the area and gave us a lot of information. It was so nice to be shown where to go and the significance of everything. There were certain places that we went to that were ONLY open an the day that I was there. I'm so glad that I was able to be a part of it and experience it with so many people who made a pilgrimage to go there. Such a cool night and I'm so thankful that it didn't rain, like it was supposed to!
 |
| first set of lights we saw |
 |
| just in front of the metro station |
 |
| i liked this structure |
 |
| huge parade |
 |
| more sets of lights |
 |
| a type of instrument people were playing |
 |
| so cool |
 |
| USA 8517 |
 |
| Japan |
 |
| Japan |
 |
| twirling thing |
 |
| cool lantern |
 |
| France 8520 |
 |
| in the distance |
 |
| so beautiful! |
 |
| lots of performers |
 |
| lots of food stalls too |
 |
| the road leading to the temple |
 |
| so many people!!!! |
 |
| entrance before the stairs |
 |
| top of the stairs (96 stairs, number of letters in the Lotus Sutra) |
 |
| about to enter the temple area |
 |
| so many many people |
 |
| Netherlands |
 |
| Finland |
 |
| temple and people |
 |
| France |
 |
| the group |
 |
| inside the main temple |
 |
| this place is only open once a year |
 |
| nice view point |
 |
| going to another special place |
 |
| open once a year |
 |
| more lanterns |
 |
| Tahoto (red pagoda) |
 |
| only open once a year |
 |
| loved all the lights |
 |
| lots of devoted followers |
 |
| another entrance |
 |
| more lanterns |
 |
| people who came here for their pilgrimage |
 |
| place where the pillar Nichiren Shonin leaned on before his death can be seen and touched |
 |
| sakura in october?????? |
 |
| it was said when Nichiren Shonin died, the ground shook and cherry blossom trees in front of the room where Nichiren Shonin died bloomed unseasonly!!! |
 |
| Japan 8524 |
No comments:
Post a Comment