The other day, I went to Gero City in Gifu Prefecture on an errand to my mother’s family home. On the way back, I stopped at Shōbō-ji Temple in Gifu City and, for the first time in quite a while, paid my respects to the Gifu Great Buddha.
Here sits the Gifu Great Buddha, a large statue of Shakyamuni Buddha that is counted among Japan’s three great Buddha statues.
▼ This is the Gifu Great Buddha.
Gifu Great Buddha — The Bamboo-Woven “Kago Daibutsu”
The Gifu Great Buddha was completed in Tenpō 3 (1832). As its other name, “Kago Daibutsu” (Basket Buddha), suggests, its inner framework was built from wood and then covered with bamboo woven around it like a basket.
Clay was applied over the bamboo, followed by Buddhist scriptures—the Issaikyō collected from various regions—and finally layers of lacquer and gold leaf. It took an astonishing 38 years to complete.
It is neither carved stone nor carved wood, nor a gilt-bronze Buddha. Instead, wood and bamboo form the structure, layered with clay, sutras, lacquer, and gold leaf. I love this simple Buddha in which you can feel both the materials and the hands that made it, and this was my third visit.
What I Felt on My Third Visit to the Gifu Great Buddha
I first encountered this Buddha when I was still young. At the time, it looked to me like nothing more than an old-fashioned Buddhist statue.
But when I returned after many years, I found myself deeply moved by its gentle atmosphere.
And standing before the Gifu Great Buddha once again this time, what I felt was a simple beauty—something a little different from “art” and closer, perhaps, to mingei, the Japanese idea of folk craft.
In an earlier article on the “Primitive Loom”, I wrote that what we make at Hitotsuya should be “closer to mingei than to art.” Seeing something this large shaped by human hands from familiar materials such as bamboo and clay made me think again about what I want to value in my own making.
▼ Once again, I was drawn to the calm and gentle presence of the Gifu Great Buddha.
The Great Buddha seems to bend its enormous body slightly, almost as though the space were a little too small, as it welcomes those who come to visit.
There is a warmth in that gentle figure, as if it were embracing everyone who looks upon it.
Things I could not see when I was young gradually become visible with the passing of the years. Perhaps the next time I visit, I will discover yet another face of the Gifu Great Buddha.
Ten years from now, twenty years from now—I would like to come here again.