7/02/2007

Grapes Yakushi

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Fudo Myo-O Gallery

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Grapes Yakushi, Budoo Yakushi 葡萄薬師

This is a special statue of the Buddha of Medicine and Healiny, Yakushi, in the winegrowing province of Yamanashi. Katsunuma Town 勝沼.


Temple Daizen-Ji

During the Nara period, the famous priest Gyoki visited the area and had a special dream about this deity one night. Yakushi was holding a bunch of grapes in his right hand, and in the other his usual medicine bottle.

When he woke up, he started to carve a statue as he had visioned it in his dream, founded the temple Daizen-Ji 大善寺 and began to venerate the statue there. It is the only statue of Yakushi with grapes in Japan. In olden times, wine was one of the precious medicines of the day.

He is the protector deity of the grape-growing farmers in this area. This is also the oldest part of Japan where real grapes, not the wild mountain grapes, where grown and a kind of drink produced, budoo shu 葡萄 ぶどう酒, a bit different from wine, made like a ricewine. But latest research shows that the grapes of this area originate in the Caucasus area and might have reached Japan via the Silk Road and Buddhism. Or maybe migratory birds dropped the seeds ...




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wine from Kooshuu 甲州ワイン, grapes from Kooshuu 甲州ぶどう


I saw this statue on TV, the bunch of grapes was really big and blue in the right hand of this deity.

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kooryuu 甲龍 Koryu "Dragon from Koshu"
One of the oldest types of grapes from Koshu province.

Grown in Katsunuma 勝沼町.
There is also the oldest grape tree in the region, looking itself like a dragon.



- source : www.88rose.net


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External LINKS

Temple Daizen-Ji, a national treasure
http://www.kokuhoworld.com/010.html

With a photo of a different statue of Yakushi
http://aguba.hp.infoseek.co.jp/daizenji.htm

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Budō Yakushi 葡萄薬師 Grape Yakushi

Daizenji Temple 大善寺 in Yamanashi prefecture possesses a one-of-a-kind seated image of Yakushi holding grapes in his left hand. Yamanashi is a grape-growing, winemaking region, and Budō Yakushi ブドウ薬師 (Grape Yakushi) is befittingly the protective deity of local grape farmers. Daizenji’s Yakushi Hall is a designated national treasure (dated to 1286).
The temple claims its Budō Yakushi icon dates from the Heian era. For reasons unknown (to me), Yui Suzuki does not mention this temple or this statue in her book, but she does make passing note (p. 42) of an intertwined grapevine motif on the mandorla of the ninth-century Yakushi statue at Shōjōji Temple (Fukushima) – a motif she says is also found on the eight-century pedestal of the famous bronze Yakushi statue at Yakushiji Temple in Nara.
(Mark Schumacher)



Gyoki Bosatsu Gyooki 行基菩薩


Yakushi Nyorai 薬師如来、Buddha of Medicine





Grapes and Haiku

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

kooryuu 甲龍 Koryu "Dragon from Koshu"
One of the oldest types of grapes from Koshu province.