Jump to content

Otake Dainichi Nyorai

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Otake Dainichi Nyorai (お竹大日如来 or 於竹大日如来), who is also known as Otake, is a figure in the Japanese Buddhist tradition.

She was a humble maidservant of the Sakuma family in Odenma-cho in Edo, who lived during the 17th century. She was a very religious woman of great Buddhist virtue. She gave all she had to the poor, ate hardly any food, and performed the most menial chores with extreme diligence.[1] A group of mountain ascetics, who were searching for the reincarnation of the Nyorai Buddha, found her. When Otake bent down to pick up a few grains of rice that had fallen on the floor, a halo-like light surrounded her, convincing the ascetics that they had come upon a divine being. Otake is often portrayed with an object behind her head that resembles a halo, or with a shadow or reflection identifying her as a buddha.[2]

References

[edit]

Footnotes

[edit]
  1. ^ Joly, Henri L., Legend in Japanese Art, Charles E. Tuttle Co., Rutland Vermont, 1967, pp. 396-99
  2. ^ Arts and Designs of Japan