Nerikuyo-eshiki Ceremony
May 14th
Legend has it that Princess Chujo was born to Toyonari Fujiwara, a powerful minister in the 8th century Imperial Court, in present day Nara. Though not actually a princess her beauty and grace was such that people called her, “Chujo-Hime,” or Princess Chujo in Japanese. Princess Chujo’s mother passed away when she was 5 years old and her father remarried. Princess Chujo’s stepmother was resentful of her husband’s child and bullied Chujo relentlessly causing her to flee to a hermitage on Mt. Hibari (near present day Hase-dera Temple) and take up Buddhism and the reciting of sutras to ease her broken heart. After a few months Chujo’s father put a stop to his new wife’s bullying and brought Chujo home where at 16 she received an offer from Emperor Junnin to become his consort. Chujo refused this offer preferring to continue her studies of Buddhism with the goal of becoming a nun. Chujo’s father would not permit her to become a nun but he did not make her accept the Emperor’s offer.
When Chujo was 19 her father passed away and her stepmother celebrated the occasion by trying to have her killed. With the help of a retainer however, Chujo was able to escape from her step mother and enter the nunnery at Taim-dera Temple. Within two years of entering the temple’s nunnery Princess Chujo became “a living Buddha” owing to the strength and devotion of her faith. One evening Princess Chujo dreamed an image of nirvana and the Buddhist pure land. With this vision as her inspiration she weaved a lotus thread mandala, the Taima Mandala, in just one night. The Taima Mandala would go on to become Taimadera Temple’s principal item of worship and Princess Chujo, upon her death at 29, was carried into the pure land by 25 bodhisattvas. Until this time it was not believed that women could achieve entry to the pure land. Princess Chujo changed that belief.
Today, almost 1,300 years after Princess Chujo’s death, Taimadera Temple marks the occasion with the Nerikuyo-eshiki Ceremony. Twenty five monks from Taimadera don colorful kimonos and golden Kannon Buddha masks, and parade and dance across an elevated “raigo” bridge (bridge to the pure land/heaven) in a beautiful and mysterious re-enactment of Princess Chujo’s conveyance to heaven. The Nerikuyo-eshiki has taken place every year since 1005 and is well attended by people from both its hometown, Katsuragi City, as well as locations farther away. Festivities begin with prayers for health and well being at the Naka no Bo Main Hall (10am-3pm), and the procession of 25 bodhisattvas and Princess Chujo’s palanquin across the Raigo Bridge begins at 4pm and concludes when Princess Chujo’s palanquin reaches the Mandara-do Main Hall after traversing the entirety of the Raigo Bridge. There is also a display of the “Treasures of Princess Chujo” from 9am-5pm at the Naka no Bo complex’s Reihokan Building (¥500 adults, ¥250 children), and a Shabutsu Buddhism Art class at the Naka no Bo complex’s Shabutsu Dojo (¥500 adults, ¥250 children).
豊田定男
Works Consulted: http://www.taimadera.org/news/event12.html (Japanese) http://www.big.or.jp/~loupe/links/etale2.shtml (Japanese) http://www.city.katsuragi.nara.jp/index.cfm/14,2657,43,211,html (Japanese) http://www.travel-around-japan.com/k63-25-taimadera.html http://road-station.com/2014/01/an-independent-lady-taima-dera-part-2/ http://www.goldenjipangu.com/150514taima.html