Buddha Statues

Hello Subscribers,
Knowledge and product updates for April 2011.

Updates to A-to-Z Dictionary of Japanese Deities

» DARUMA – Father of Zen Buddhism
http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/daruma.shtml
Featuring nearly 80 photos, this 29-page special report is intended as a primer for anyone interested in Daruma (Sanskrit = Bodhidharma), the founder of Zen Buddhism. Daruma’s evolution in Japan (from Buddhahood to Brothel, from Saint to Sinner) is an amazing story involving Japanese folkloric motifs, epidemic deities, fertility, prostitutes, phallic symbols, and gender change. It includes fantastic legends of arms and legs that atrophy and fall off. In one story, Daruma falls asleep during meditation, and in anger, he plucks out his eyelids, which fall to the ground and sprout into China’s first green tea plants. Today the armless, legless, and blind Daruma doll is one of Japan’s most ubiquitous icons of good fortune. Painting in the doll’s eyes is a widespread modern practice to ensure success in business, marriage, politics, and other endeavors.

Various forms of Daruma in Japan.

Updates to Buddha Statue eStore

» SEVEN NEW PRODUCTS ADDED TO OUR ESTORE

• Fudō Myō-ō (Four New Products)
• Dainichi Nyorai (Two New Products)
• Jizō Bosatsu (One New Product)

New Products in the eStore

In The News, & Current/Upcoming Exhibitions

Let us pause for a moment to reflect on the terrible misery and suffering inflicted on Japan by the killer March 11 earthquake and tsunami.  April 28th marked the 49th day since the catastrophe. In Buddhist traditions, the 49th day is of great importance — this is the day when the deceased receives his/her karmic judgment and, on the 50th day, enters the world of rebirth.  Services were held around Japan to make the “passage” as favorable as possible for all those who died in the disaster. If you haven’t given yet, please consider donating (no matter how little) to disaster relief. Visit the Friends of Japan Web Consortium – Donation Page for a list of trustworthy relief organizations.

» Meetings With Remarkable People in Japan: Shuren Sakurai
Read a heartwarming story by my friend Steve Beimel (Kyoto resident) about an old Zen priest named Shuren Sakurai who carves NOH masks and embodies the Zen philosophy of simplicity, perseverance, and patience.

» A Journey to Xiangtangshan. A clip from a video featured in the exhibition “Echoes of the Past: The Buddhist Cave Temples of Xiangtangshan,” on view at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Feb. 26-July 31, 2011.

» Safe Handling Practices for Japanese Hanging Scrolls
The FREER/SACKLER site includes other videos on handling practices for Japanese handscrolls and hanging scrolls, as well as films on other topics you might find useful and enjoyable.

» Kyoto National Museum
Honen:  The Life and Art of the Founder of the Pure Land Buddhist Sect
March 26 to May 8, 2011.
Click here to read an English review of the exhibition.

» Edo-Tokyo Musuem
The Five Hundred Arhats by Kano Kazunobu (1816-63).
April 29 through July 3, 2011. Get the exhibit catalogue before viewing the artwork, as the catalog includes English descriptions while the gallery labels do not.

» Tokyo National Museum
http://www.tnm.jp/modules/r_exhibition/index.php?controller=ctg&cid=1

» Nara National Museum
http://www.narahaku.go.jp/english/exhibition/special.html

» Secrets of the Silk Road Exhibition
http://penn.museum/china-secrets-of-the-silk-road.html
February 5 to June 5, 2011. Penn Museum (Philadelphia). Secrets of the Silk Road includes two mummies and the full burial trappings of a third, representative of three different periods of time. In addition to the mummies, the exhibition features more than 100 objects that offer insight into the long and diverse cultural heritage of Central Asia—a crossroads of the Silk Road.