Prayer inside Maédaté

[Bugyotsuji]

Inside a Maédaté was this rectangular piece of paper. I can get the central prayer, 南無阿弥陀佛 which is maybe used by the Jodo Shinshu sect, and it seems to have Daiko-in 大光院 written bottom right.

Questions to save me hours of possibly fruitless effort! Is top right warding off natural disasters? What do top and bottom left refer to, I wonder?

Many thanks in advance!

 

This place? https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E5%85%89%E9%99%A2_(%E5%A4%AA%E7%94%B0%E5%B8%82)

 

The gate there named 吉祥門 Kichijo Mon because the gate was completed on the day that Osaka Castle finally fell to Tokugawa Ieyasu ... 大光院正面の大手門は徳川家康の大坂城落城の日当日に落成したため、吉祥門と名づけられたという。

[IanB]

I once found a printed prayer paper sewn between the layers of fabric on a kote.

Ian Bottomley

[Bugyotsuji]

It must have been so satisfying to discover a secret like that, Ian! Do you still have the paperwork or a photo of it?

[IanB]

I will try and find it.

Ian

[TETSUGENDO]

Very interesting Piers,  I take it that these woodblock printed prayers were 'purchased' fron a Shrine?

 

-S-

[Nobody]

Bottom left:

呑龍 (Donryu) – The monk who founded Daikoin

 

The top right warding continues to top left.

震法雷曜法電 – shaking thunder of Buddhism, dazzling lightning of Buddhism,

以法音覚世間 – the world be spiritually awaken by a sermon.

 

I found that the above sentence is a part of a sutra (仏説無量寿経巻上).

Ref. http://seiten.icho.gr.jp/html/001.html

[Bugyotsuji]

Steven, you may be right about a woodblock print. It does look like it to my untrained eye. And yes again, I would suspect that temples/shrines did and maybe still do rely on some form of labor-saving mass-printing process. (There was also a little folded and sealed お守り omamori inside with the red Sanskrit character Ka-n...? for Fudo Myo-o, protection from disasters.) 

[Bugyotsuji]

Ah, Nodody Sama, we crossed posts. Thank you very much! お礼を云わせて下さい。大変助かりました。  

 

(Ah, I see we can turn the pages in your link!) 

[Nobody]

Ah, Nodody Sama, we crossed posts. Thank you very much! お礼を云わせて下さい。大変助かりました。  

 

(Although I could not find it within the page you linked.)

 

The sentences appear pp. 3-4

[Bugyotsuji]

Ah, yes, found them! Brilliant. 

[Bugyotsuji]

The WWII heavy bomber type 100 Hyakushiki Ju-bakugekiki ('Helen') was named after Donryu! 

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%80%E3%80%87%E3%80%87%E5%BC%8F%E9%87%8D%E7%88%86%E6%92%83%E6%A9%9F

 

「呑む龍」とは勇ましい愛称だが、実際には江戸時代に貧乏人の子弟を養育した心優しい浄土宗の僧「呑龍」の名前からとったものである。これは製造会社の中島飛行機の工場があった群馬県太田市に「子育て呑龍」と呼ばれた大光院があったことから名づけられたという。

[Bugyotsuji]

Apologies for the armour, still in process of changing the display.

 

How the Maédaté looks.

[Bugyotsuji]

Rearranged somewhat. Never perfect, these things.

 

PS That's a short 木刀 bokuto, for those of you who are worried. In the middle of the passageway, in earthquake country, with people passing by, a seriously impressive Nihonto in full koshirae might get knocked about. Still open to negotiation, however.