Oiwa Shrine
Main Image Wooden Seated Dainichi Nyorai Category Nyorai (Tathagata)
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DescriptionThe wooden seated Dainichi Nyorai preserved at Sai Shrine within Oiwa Shrine is a Tangible Cultural Property designated by Ibaraki Prefecture. The 61 cm joined-wood statue wears a gilt-bronze Five Wisdom crown representing the Five Wisdom Tathagatas and forms the hokkai jo-in meditation mudra before the abdomen. At Oiwa Shrine, where traditions of syncretic Shinto-Buddhist worship remain especially strong, the image was once revered as a principal protective Buddha. Sources differ on its date: Oiwa Shrine places it in the late Kamakura period, while the Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education dates it to the Muromachi period. It cannot normally be viewed directly, but is unveiled twice a year at the spring and autumn Eko memorial festivals and continues to be enshrined within a tradition of syncretic memorial worship.
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