by Samantha Johnson
Hey y'all, it's your friendly neighborhood PA, Samantha here!
Although there are no “Titans” per se in Nara, there is one similarly enormous figure that draws millions of domestic and international tourists every year: the Great Buddha (Daibutsu) statue at Todaiji Temple in Nara City. Standing (sitting?) at a height of roughly 15 meters (49 feet) tall, the Great Buddha has become a well-known symbol of Nara, frequently appearing in advertisements, as well as merchandise such as T-shirts, furoshiki cloths, decorative washi tape, keychains, and even pudding. However, as you might imagine, solemnly sitting for months and months on end inside the Great Buddha Hall means that a fair amount of dust can gather on him, leaving him in much need of a good bath.
Enter Nara’s version of the Survey Corps – the priests of Todaiji Temple! (As their entrance music, I imagined the Attack on Titan opening theme song playing in the background…)
Every year in August, the Cleaning of the Great Buddha (お身拭い Ominugui) is held, in which the Survey Corps– erm, I mean the priests of Todaiji– arm themselves with mops and buckets of water and, using a series of pulleys, hoist themselves up to thoroughly clean each area of the Buddha statue, starting with his feet and lower body, then moving up to his head, face, and shoulders, and finally ending with the hands. The ceremony starts early in the morning at 7:30, and a line of Nara residents in the know begins to wrap around the central gate (中門), with many spectators arriving as early as 6:30! In my case, for the cleaning held this year on Sunday, August 7th, I arrived at 7:00am to claim my place in line, and so was among the first to buy a ticket and enter the Great Buddha Hall to witness the ceremony.
Inside, spectators (including reporters and a cameraman from NHK!) watched in awe as the priests began their work. Besides the intermittent sounds of camera shutters and scrubbing, there was a hushed reverence in the hall, and the intense focus of the priests was evident to onlookers.
The pulleys that gave priests access to the upper body for cleaning were all manually-operated, so a small group of priests waiting below worked as a team to hoist each priest up to eye-level of the Buddha statue. In my favorite picture from the event, you can see three kanji on the backs of each of the 3 priests responsible for cleaning the head. These are:
西 (west)
中 (middle)
東 (east)
So, this shows which side of the Buddha’s head the priest was assigned to! Since August marks the middle of summer break and the start of the Obon holiday in Japan, many Nara JETs take the opportunity to travel outside the prefecture during this time. However, I highly recommend staying in Nara for at least the day of this ceremony to watch the real-life version of the Attack on Titan cleaning episode. (If you know, you know!)
All jokes aside, it is quite the sight to see, and definitely worth waking up bright and early on a Sunday for!
As I left Todaiji to enjoy the rest of the weekend, I was given a sweet send-off by these two beautiful Nara travel ambassadors.
「びい！」（Translation: “Come back next year!”)
Sorry for being a little silly in this post! ;) And thanks to Nara AJET for giving me the opportunity to write a blog post. Check back soon for more fun travel ideas and posts about life as a JET in Nara! If you’d like more recommendations for places to visit in Nara City in particular, please also reach out to me on Instagram @narablackcats ^^
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Referenced Sources:
Todaiji (Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C5%8Ddai-ji
Todaiji Official Guidebook (in Japanese and English, 2019 Edition)
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