Nara

Nara is famous of cute deers.

but for me, I was touched by the story of Jianzhen.

In order to come to Japan and help to propagate Buddhism in Japan, In the eleven years from 743 to 754, he attempted to visit Japan some six times. In summer 748, Jianzhen made his fifth attempt to reach Japan. Leaving from Yangzhou, he made it to the Zhoushan Archipelago off the coast of modern Zhejiang. But the ship was blown off course and ended up in the Yande commandery on Hainan Island. Jianzhen was then forced to make his way back to Yangzhou by land, lecturing at a number of monasteries on the way. Jianzhen travelled along the Gan river to Jiujiang, and then down the Yangtze River. The entire failed enterprise took him close to three years. By the time Jianzhen returned to Yangzhou, he was blind from an infection.

In the autumn of 753, the blind Jianzhen decided to join a Japanese emissary ship returning to its home country. After an eventful sea journey of several months, the group finally landed at Kagoshima, Kyushu, on December 20. They reached Nara in the spring of the next year and were welcomed by the Emperor. At Nara, Jianzhen presided over Todai-ji, now among the oldest Buddhist establishments in Japan. The Chinese monks who travelled with him introduced Chinese religious sculpture to the Japanese.

In 759 he retired to a piece of land granted to him by the imperial court in the western part of Nara. There he founded a school and also set up a private temple, Toshodai-ji. In the ten years until his death in Japan, Jianzhen not only propagated the Buddhist faith among the aristocracy, but also served as an important conductor of Chinese culture.

Toshodai-ji

Toshodai-ji

the memory of communication of China and Japan in Toshodai-ji

Todai-ji

If you go to other places in Japan, you will find the structure and size of the temple and Buddha in Nara is different from others, Quite similar with Chinese. I visited the national museum in Nara, many different kinds of image of Buddha can be seen in that museum.

souvenirs from Nara

It is a good place to go if you like the culture and history.