Takkoku no Iwaya Bishamondo / Takkoku Saikoji Temple
Main Image Rock-face Great Buddha (Amida Nyorai) Category Nyorai (Tathagata)
Impression TagsPowerMysterySolemnity
DescriptionThe Rock-face Great Buddha carved into the cliff west of Takkoku no Iwaya Bishamondo is a monumental cliff-carved image approximately 16.5 meters high, with a face about 3.6 meters long and shoulders roughly 9.9 meters wide. Known as the northernmost major magaibutsu in Japan, tradition says that Minamoto no Yoshiie had it carved to memorialize both allies and enemies who died in the Former Nine Years’ War and the Later Three Years’ War. It was once also called “Iwa Dainichi,” and there is a theory that it represents Dainichi Nyorai. However, Takkoku Saikoji identifies it as Amida Nyorai because the name of Amida has long been recited here and because a stone monument dated 1317 below the image bears the seed syllable “hrīḥ” (Japanese: kiriku) of Amida Nyorai. The enormous sacred face surviving on the weathered cliff itself is an object of worship and one of Iwate’s representative Buddhist sites.
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