It’s been four years since my father passed away. His faith ran so deep that every morning and night he recited sutras before his Buddhist altar. When I was younger and shared the bath with him, I was forced to recite the sutras before I could get out. In middle school, when I acted like a little punk, I got dragged to Mount Kôya, where we spent several days living with the ascetic monks. My father’s teachings were always tied to Buddhism. My rebellious nature toward him, far from weakening, grew so that I began to question religion deeply. To dispel those feelings, I decided to study theology when I went to college. I had actually thought to challenge my father and refute his thinking with superior knowledge. While studying the various religions of the world, I was able to approach them without bias. At the same time, I began to understand my father’s thinking and realized that refuting him was pointless. Now here I am, full of respect for my father.
Of those that my father respected, one was a photographer: Ken Domon.
In 1939, at Nara’s Muroji temple, Ken Domon observed, “I feel like I’ve come into contact with the ancient ancestors of the Japanese. If I take pictures of Buddhist statues in Japan, I will understand not only Japanese history and culture, but the Japanese people as well.” Thus, it is said, he began photographing his lifelong theme. Numerically speaking, Japan has around 84.7 million Buddhists and 75,000 temples, with more than 300,000 Buddhist statues. Even compared to other Buddhist countries, this is exceptionally high.
I recently got to photograph a Buddha statue with raised hand and resting palm in Kanazawa-ku’s Kamariya district, at the Tokozenji Temple–it is their altar’s principal statue. Tokozenji is a temple of the Rinzai school, Kenchoji sect (which pioneered Zen Buddhism in Japan). Hatakeyama Shigetada founded it in 1282, and in 1467 it was relocated to where it currently stands. It has quietly remained there ever since. Beyond this statue, I also got to photograph some 20 others. Perhaps I’m following in Domon’s footsteps, but I felt in sync with the ancient stillness of the statues. While somewhat overwhelmed by their power, I braced my soul and frantically snapped the shutter. I’ve heard that when Domon snapped his, he bellowed a fierce roar, like in karate; I wonder if he really had to go that far just to snap the shot. While reciting the sutras in my mind, I spent some 14 hours gathering all the images. I also received special permission to print them in this magazine. I’m happy thinking that you might draw even a small amount of strength from this Buddha.
Finally, I’d like to say something very personal: writing about this has evoked images of my smiling father in my mind.