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You are in Southern Kyoto; the larger part of the city (375,000 population) lies over beyond that great temple to the Buddha. The main entrance is where you see those stairs at the right. This bronze lotus-basin where the children have been playing, furnishes water with which one washes the lips and the hands before going in to worship.
This is at once the newest (1895) and the largest Buddhist temple in Japan. The building is of a hard, fine-grained wood, 195x230 feet and that ridge-pole is 126 feet above your feet. Devout women gave their hair to make the ropes used in hoisting the beams into place; the ropes are kept now in an adjoining building. Worshippers kneel while the priests chant prayers and hymns, the ritual somewhat resembling that of the mass in the Latin Church. An enshrined statue of Buddha is exposed for adoration at the climax of the service.
That building at the left is where congregations gather at stated intervals for instruction in the form of sermons. Scherer in "Japan Today" gives translations of several such sermons preached by Buddhist priests. This is the gist of one of them:
"Everything born into this world has a commission from heaven . . . . What were you born into this world for? Man has not come into this world just to eat rice and grow old.
"We received at birth from Heaven these admirable bodies, we were provided with what we call the five senses. In our hearts likewise we received at birth the five virtues of love, justice, courtesy, wisdom and truth. Heaven desires to have us attain obedience to parents, loyalty to masters, concord between husband and wife, harmony among brothers, and fidelity in our intercourse."
(See Scherer, quoted above; also Davidson's "Present Day Japan," Scidmore's "Jinrikisha Days in Japan," etc.)
From Notes of Travel, No.9, copyright, 1904, by Underwood & Underwood.
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Main front of the largest Buddhist Temple in Japan. (Kyoto).
Façade du plus grand Temple de Buddha au Japon. (Kyoto).
Gaupt Facade des gröbten Buddhitten Tempels in Japan. (Kyoto.)
Fachada del más gran Templo de Buddha en el Japón. (Kyoto).
Facaden till det största Buddhist-templet i Japan. (Kioto).
ГлIIeBoй Buдb camaro бoлбIIIого храма буддбI в Японии (Kioto).