At the end of the Ping'an era, the government of the court had already existed in name only, and the era of the samurai family was slowly beginning. At this moment, the Emperor of the Later White River was already sitting in the face of the vigorously developing martial forces. At this moment, the leader of the samurai, Hei Kiyomori, seized the real power of the imperial court and occupied a lot of wealth through trade, and his heart was also full of ambition, hoping to create a samurai politics by his own hands.
In this regard, the deeply worried Emperor Go-Shirakawa hoped to find an opportunity to weaken the financial resources of the Ping family, and Ping Qingsheng also hoped to keep the Emperor away from politics and concentrate on the Buddha, so such a magnificent Buddhist hall, the Thirty-three Halls, was born in the Heian Kyo at that time.
Panoramic view of the Thirty-Three Halls
However, the Thirty-Three Halls seen today are no longer the original objects created by Hira Kiyomori in 1266, but were rebuilt on the ruins of the burned down ruins in the third year of Bunei(1266), and even so, the Thirty-Three Halls are the second oldest ancient buildings in Kyoto, where there are many ancient buildings, but because of their proud length is the longest surviving ancient wooden structure, the so-called Thirty-Three Rooms are because they have thirty-five columns on the front, and one between the two pillars, a total of thirty-three. The most famous cultural relics in the Thirty-Three Halls are the Seated Statue of the Buddha-figure Senju Kannon and the 1,000 Standing Statues of the Senju Kannon enshrined in it, and the arrangement of these 1,001 Senju Kannon statues is as follows:
such:
And something like this:
Fortunately, I don't have dense phobia, otherwise after going in, I am afraid that I will not be able to come out.
However, although this 1,000-and-1 statue of Guanyin is similar in appearance, the major aspects of the event are different. In 1249, the Thirty-Three Halls experienced a fire, and only 124 Buddha statues were rescued, and after 15 years of carving by The Zhanqing masters and their disciples, the remaining 876 Buddha statues were replenished. As the Dharma says: Born from the heart, different Buddha statues reflect the different moods of the carvers, while different people stand in different positions and look at these Buddha statues with different moods, so naturally they have different feelings.
In the center of each statue is the seated statue of the Buddha, Senju Senju Sengoku Kannon, which is three meters high and carved from cypress wood and wrapped in gold leaf. The expression of the Buddha statue is calm and gentle, which is the consistent style of Master Zhanqing, while the Buddha statue as a whole gives people a sense of heaviness, and the kindness of Guanyin Bodhisattva is expressed. The statue of ZhanQing, who carved this Buddha statue, died at the age of 84 the year after the completion of this seated statue, which can be said to be a representative work of his life, and also represents the highest level of Japanese Buddha statue making technology in the Kamakura period, so it has been rated as a national treasure of Japan.
However, the exquisitely carved works in the thirty-three halls do not stop there, if the previous Kannon statues are all kind expressions, then the surrounding twenty-eight statues are a different expression.
They are like this:
And this:
The so-called twenty-eight masters are the twenty-eight dependents of the Thousand Hands Guanyin in propagating the Dharma, and they are also the good ghosts and gods who support the practitioners of the Guanyin Dharma, such as the Four Heavenly Kings who are often established at the mountain gate of the Han Temple. The twenty-eight parts have different looks, like the angry eyes of the Heavenly King Vajra, whose body is strong and powerful, and his muscles are full, reflecting the majesty of the Dharma. There are also such as da Ben Gong De Tian and Emperor Shi Tian, etc., which have compassionate faces, but there are also some that are completely different from the surrounding styles, such as this:
Statue of the Immortals
However, the Thirty-Three Halls are said to be a place for Buddhist meditation, but they are also a good place to see the girls at a certain time. The Japanese longbow was one of the most important weapons of the Japanese samurai in ancient times, so the Japanese bow is also quite popular in Japan in modern times as a traditional sport for self-cultivation. Since the Edo period, the "Long-Range Shooting Festival" has been held every year in the west corridor of the Thirty-Three Halls, where contestants stand at one end and shoot targets at the other end, so many arrow marks left by missed arrows can be seen on the pillars outside the Thirty-Three Halls.
A long-range shoot festival in ukiyo-e of the Edo period
However, this "long-range shooting festival" has become part of the girl's coming-of-age ceremony today, and every year around January 15, girls in traditional kimonos compete in their skills to indicate adulthood, and sometimes they are also attracted to the eyes!
In Kyoto, where there are many ancient buildings, Sanjusangendo is a great place to visit the ancient hangings, and the Kyoto National Museum opposite the door is one of the largest museums in Japan. Finally, the official website of the Thirty-Three Halls is offered: http://www.sanjusangendo.jp/index.html, all the officials, white!