Todai-ji and the Great Buddha of Nara: Dedication in 752

The Great Buddha of Todai-ji is a colossal bronze statue of the Buddha Vairocana in Nara, Japan, dedicated in an “eye-opening” ceremony in 752. Commissioned by Emperor Shomu as an act of state devotion, it consumed enormous quantities of metal and labour and made Todai-ji, the “Great Eastern Temple”, the centre of a national network of Buddhist temples. Repeatedly damaged and restored, the statue and its hall remain the best-known monuments of the Nara period.

Background: a troubled reign

Japan’s first permanent capital, Heijo-kyo, the city now called Nara, was founded in 710 on the model of the Tang Chinese capital. The court had adopted Chinese-style law codes, writing and Buddhism, which reached Japan from Korea in the sixth century and was promoted by rulers such as Prince Shotoku.

Emperor Shomu, who reigned from 724 to 749, faced a series of disasters. A smallpox epidemic between 735 and 737 killed perhaps a quarter to a third of the population, according to modern estimates, including the four powerful Fujiwara brothers who dominated the government. In 740 Fujiwara no Hirotsugu rebelled in Kyushu. Shaken by these events, Shomu left Nara and moved the court between several sites, including Kuni-kyo, Naniwa and Shigaraki, between 740 and 745.

Shomu and his consort, Empress Komyo, were devout Buddhists. They saw the faith as a source of protection for the state, an idea taken from Buddhist texts such as the Sutra of Golden Light. In 741 Shomu ordered every province to build a state monastery and nunnery, the kokubunji system. Todai-ji would become the head temple of that network.

The edict of 743 and popular support

In the tenth month of 743 Shomu issued an edict announcing his intention to cast a giant image of Vairocana, known in Japanese as Rushana. In the Kegon (Huayan) school of Buddhism, Vairocana is the cosmic Buddha who radiates throughout the universe, with countless other Buddhas as his emanations. The image suited a ruler who wanted to present a unified realm under one centre.

The edict invited ordinary people to contribute, however small their offering, so that the statue would be a shared act of merit for the whole country rather than a purely royal gift. Work began at Shigaraki, but after fires and earthquakes there the project was moved to Nara in 745, on the hills east of the capital, beside an existing temple, Konshu-ji, which was absorbed into the new foundation.

To mobilise labour and donations, the court turned to Gyoki (668–749), a monk who had earlier been restricted by the government for preaching among commoners outside official control. Gyoki had organised bridges, ponds and roads with followers across the Kinai region. Shomu now recruited his network and in 745 named him daisojo, the highest rank in the Buddhist clergy. Gyoki died in 749, before the statue was finished.

Casting the Great Buddha

The statue was cast in bronze in eight successive stages between 747 and 749, working upward from the base inside clay moulds built around a core. Workers led by the craftsman Kuninaka no Kimimaro, whose grandfather had come from the Korean kingdom of Baekje, poured molten metal layer by layer, then completed the head and the curls of hair separately.

The quantity of materials was enormous. Later temple records give figures of roughly 500 tonnes of copper together with tin, lead and mercury, though such numbers come from medieval compilations and are approximate. The temple chronicle Todai-ji yoroku claims that more than 2.6 million people took part as workers or donors, a figure modern historians treat as symbolic rather than literal.

Gilding the statue required gold, which Japan was not then known to produce. In 749 gold was discovered in Mutsu Province in the north-east and presented to the court, an event celebrated as a sign of divine favour; Shomu even changed the era name. The same year he abdicated in favour of his daughter, who reigned as Empress Koken.

The eye-opening ceremony of 752

The consecration was held on the ninth day of the fourth month of 752, a date chosen close to the Buddha’s birthday and, by the court’s reckoning, the two-hundredth anniversary of Buddhism’s arrival in Japan. The ceremony was the “eye-opening” (kaigen), in which the pupils of the image were painted to bring it spiritually to life.

The officiant was Bodhisena, an Indian monk who had come to Japan in 736. He held a great brush to which long cords were attached, so that the retired emperor, the empress dowager, Empress Koken and many others could hold the cords and share in the act. The Shoku Nihongi, the official history of the period, says that the ceremony was the most magnificent since Buddhism had reached Japan, and that around 10,000 monks took part. Music and dances from China, Korea and South-East Asia were performed. The brush and cords survive in the Shoso-in.

The great hall that sheltered the statue had been finished shortly before the ceremony, but gilding of the statue continued for several years afterwards.

Key people

• Emperor Shomu (701–756; reigned 724–749): instigator of the project and of the provincial temple system.
• Empress Komyo (701–760): Shomu’s consort, the first commoner empress, a major patron of Buddhist charity and founder of the Shoso-in collection.
• Empress Koken (718–770): Shomu’s daughter, who presided over the dedication as reigning monarch.
• Gyoki (668–749): popular preacher who raised labour and support for the project.
• Bodhisena (704–760): Indian monk who performed the eye-opening.
• Roben (689–773): scholar-monk of the Kegon school who became the first head of Todai-ji and helped direct the project.
• Kuninaka no Kimimaro (died 774): master craftsman in charge of casting the statue.

Consequences

The project placed heavy strain on the state’s finances and on the farmers who supplied labour and taxes. It also bound the court and the great Buddhist temples closely together. In 754 the Chinese monk Jianzhen set up an ordination platform at Todai-ji, where he ordained the retired emperor and empress.

In the 760s the monk Dokyo gained such influence over Koken, who reigned a second time as Empress Shotoku, that some feared he aimed at the throne. Worry about the power of the Nara monasteries was one reason why Emperor Kanmu later moved the capital away from Nara, first to Nagaoka in 784 and then to Heian-kyo in 794.

When Shomu died in 756, Empress Komyo donated his possessions to the Great Buddha. They were stored in the Shoso-in, a raised log storehouse that still holds thousands of eighth-century objects, including goods that came along the Silk Roads from Tang China, Central Asia and Persia.

Destruction, rebuilding and living tradition

In 1180, during the Genpei War, Taira forces burned much of Nara, including the Great Buddha Hall, and the statue’s head and hands were damaged. The monk Chogen led a nationwide fundraising campaign; the statue was rededicated in 1185 and the hall in 1195, with Minamoto no Yoritomo attending. Chogen’s Great South Gate, rebuilt in 1199, still stands with its huge guardian statues carved by Unkei and Kaikei in 1203.

The hall burned again in 1567 during fighting between the warlords Matsunaga Hisahide and the Miyoshi faction, and the Buddha stood in the open for over a century. The head was recast and the statue reconsecrated in 1692, and a new hall was completed in 1709. Only a few parts of the present statue, mainly in the lower body and the lotus petals of the base, date from the eighth century.

Todai-ji has remained an active temple throughout these changes. Its Nigatsu-do hall hosts the Shuni-e, or Omizutori, a ritual of repentance held every spring which, according to temple tradition, has been performed without a break since 752. The Kegon school, though small today, still has Todai-ji as its head temple, and pilgrims and tourists come in large numbers to see the Buddha and the tame deer of the surrounding park.

By the numbers

Timeline

• 741: Shomu orders state temples in every province.
• 743, 10th month: Edict to create a giant image of Vairocana.
• 745: The project moves from Shigaraki to Nara.
• 747–749: The bronze statue is cast in eight stages.
• 749: Gold is found in Mutsu; Shomu abdicates in favour of Koken; Gyoki dies.
• 752, 4th month: Eye-opening ceremony led by Bodhisena.
• 756: Shomu dies; his treasures go to the Shoso-in.
• 1180: The hall is burned during the Genpei War.
• 1567: The rebuilt hall is destroyed in a civil war battle.
• 1709: The present Great Buddha Hall is completed.

Why it matters

The Great Buddha of Nara showed how completely the early Japanese state had adopted Buddhism as an instrument of government and a shared national faith. The project linked the court with popular religion, East Asian craftsmanship and Silk Road trade. Todai-ji is today part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara, and its Buddha inspired later giants such as the Great Buddha of Kamakura.