Behind the Scenes: From Pirates to Tokyo

Chapter 46 The Buddha Appears

Kamakura, Kotokuin.

Thanks to the rapid development of Buddhism during the Kamakura Shogunate period, although Kamakura is no longer an economically important town, there are many Buddhist temples and Guanyin Temple in the territory.

You can almost see new temples after walking one or two streets, but speaking of it, the name of 'Kamakura Buddha' is louder than the sum of these temples.

Everyone in the world knows that there is a Great Buddha of Kamakura here, but few know that the temple where the Great Buddha of Kamakura is located is Kotokuin.

But the monks in the temple don't care about this.

They don’t care about the noble name. The secular point is that there is the Great Buddha of Kamakura anyway. Every year, countless good men and women come to give incense money. Compared with the real Japanese yen, the name is not important at all.

"What we see now is the Great Buddha of Kamakura. The seated Buddha is as high as 11 meters high. It is a rare Buddha in Japan and a peerless national treasure..."

The Great Buddha of Kamakura sits cross-legged on the pedestal, looking down at all living beings slightly.

"Actually, the Great Buddha of Kamakura was not placed in the open air like this."

"The first big Buddha was also in a special hall like other Buddha statues. There is a building that protects the Buddha statue from the wind and the sun, but it is not clear what disaster caused the Buddha hall outside the Buddha statue to disappear in the long river of history. , Some people say fire and some people say earthquake, anyway, the main hall is gone, leaving only the Buddha statue standing here for thousands of years."

After entering from the main gate of Kotoku-in Temple, a group of several people walked to the mottled Kamakura Buddha.

When the Buddha was cast, it had lowered eyebrows and eyes. Now hundreds of years have passed, and after being eroded, it looks like it will never be able to open its eyes.

Travelers kneeling on both sides of the offering box, which is slightly shorter than the pedestal, came to pay homage to the Great Buddha of Kamakura. They didn't know what happened to them that could not be solved by manpower, so that they prayed to the gods and worshiped the Buddha.

"What big straw sandals..." A traveler who just came to Kotokuin looked curiously at a pair of straw sandals inside the Buddha.

The straw sandals were nearly two meters long, and it looked like they were not for humans to wear.

"In 1951, a group of children weaved this pair of straw sandals. They hoped that the Great Buddha of Kamakura could wear this pair of straw sandals to travel all over Japan and spread grace all over Japan..." He looked at the explanatory board in front of the straw sandals, shaking "Is it true that you are a child, you have such a naive idea?"

"Buddha bless, bless... I make a fortune, Namo Amitabha, Namo Amitabha..."

Someone put money into it after praying for a while in front of the Buddha statue.

Because this is a hollow cast Buddha statue, there is a "window" behind the Buddha statue, and you can walk into the Buddha statue for a visit after paying a fee of tens of yen.

However, Toru Mizushima didn't have the leisure to 'explore' into the Buddha statue, he didn't expect that it would be inconvenient to walk out of the Buddha statue.

Now that he was in a Buddhist temple, Toru Mizushima held the necklace around his neck out of compassion until there was no one inside the Buddha statue.

"Namo Amitabha."

"Namo Amitabha."

The man who was kneeling and praying felt that his pious prayer seemed to have played a big role, otherwise, besides his own "Namo Amitabha", he seemed to have heard the "Namo Amitabha" of the Buddha statue in front of him.

He raised his head and looked at the Great Buddha of Kamakura happily, which happened to meet the eyes of the Buddha statue.

The Buddha's eyes are different from the copper-colored skin, they are dignified black, just one glance makes people have the illusion of sinking into it.

"Ok?"

But Buddha statues have their eyes closed, right?

The person who prayed couldn't remember clearly, but no matter whether the eyes of the Buddha statue were closed or squinted, it was absolutely impossible to stare at the round eyeballs like it is now.

"Has the buddha statue opened its eyes?"

Not only did the Buddha statue open its eyes, but the ten-meter-high Buddha statue slowly raised its waist from the pedestal.

The quaint copper color under the wind and sun seems to be carrying the blue sky behind it, and the hands that were originally clenched in front of the abdomen are also held in front of the chest.

The voice of Namo Amitabha came from the standing Buddha statue.

He is full of golden light, his eyes are neither sad nor happy, and he has nothing to do with the pain and itching of the world.

"Boom!!!"

The joints of the moving Buddha statue made a rumbling sound.

Enveloped by Buddha's light, tears flowed from the eyes of the man kneeling on the ground.

"Lord Buddha bless you, Lord Buddha bless you. I will definitely make a fortune!"

Instead of looking at the man kneeling on the ground and kowtowing frantically until blood flowed from his head, the bronze Buddha statue slowly stood up.

He is more than ten meters tall just sitting, and standing up like this, not only Kotokuin, but the whole Kamakura can see this standing Buddha statue!

Be it the worshipers in Kotokuin or the monks doing Buddhist ceremonies, everyone's necks seemed to be tied with silk ropes, and they were held up to stare straight up at the majestic Buddha statue.

"The Buddha... has stood up?"

"Go and invite the abbot!"

"Abbot, please call the police!"

"Abbot, what do you think?"

"Amitabha Amitabha Amitabha..."

The grey-haired old abbot frantically twirled the beads in his palm, only saying Amitabha Amitabha.

"Abbot? Abbot?"

"Amitabha, Ami...Report, call the police, what do you think I am doing?" After chanting dozens of Amitabha, the old abbot will come back to his senses, "It is only useful if the police come over!"

But there is no need to call the police.

The tea shop under the Gaode Courtyard and Zhou's residence at the crossroads have already placed many national security personnel. They are like fishermen waiting for a big fish to take the bait.

Now the big fish has indeed taken the bait, but who knows that there is actually a prehistoric megalodon next to the big fish.

It was too late to think about why prehistoric sharks appeared in the small pond, and the national police could not help looking at the Great Buddha of Kamakura in the north.

In the room, on the roof of a square building, on the street corner, or even on the beach below, everyone can see the Kamakura Buddha standing up slowly.

"Great Buddha of Kamakura, what's going on at the Great Buddha of Kamakura?"

The senior police officer who led the team to communicate with Muroki Heirahachiro stared blankly at the tall Buddha statue that suddenly stood up in the north.

The reactions of the rest were no stronger than his.

"Father, the Buddha has stood up, the Buddha has stood up."

On the beach, the child who hadn't realized the seriousness of the problem excitedly said to his father.

"What nonsense are you talking about..."

In the restaurant, the person who was eating lunch slowly dropped his chopsticks and stood up involuntarily.

"is that a lie."

In southern Shonan, where there are many Buddhist temples, countless people stood up and looked up at the sky with the giant Buddha.

"Buddha, did you appear?"

(End of this chapter)