Birushana: The Great Buddha of Nara
Japonista Dictionary › Nyorai
Birushana (毘盧舎那), also Roshana, is the Buddha whose light fills the universe in the Flower Garland Sutra, the scripture of the Kegon school. He is best known through a single colossal image: the Great Buddha of Tōdaiji in Nara, the spiritual heart of eighth-century Japan.
| Japanese |
毘盧舎那仏, Birushana-butsu; also Roshana |
| Sanskrit |
Vairocana |
| Rank |
Nyorai |
| Recognise by |
A seated buddha in plain robes with reassuring and giving hands, often with a halo of small buddhas |
| School |
Kegon, one of the Nara schools
|
A Buddha of light
In the Kegon vision, Birushana sits at the centre of a lotus of a thousand petals, each petal a world with its own Shaka, and each world holding countless more. The teaching expresses the interdependence of all things: the whole cosmos reflected in every part. Emperor Shōmu adopted this image as a model for a unified state, ordering provincial temples across Japan with Tōdaiji at their head.
The Great Buddha of Tōdaiji
The bronze Birushana of Tōdaiji was consecrated in an eye-opening ceremony in 752, attended by monks from across Asia. Seated, it rises around fifteen metres. Fires in the twelfth and sixteenth centuries destroyed much of the figure, and the present head dates from the Edo period, yet parts of the original Nara casting survive, including lotus petals engraved with the Kegon cosmos. The hall around it, rebuilt in the Edo period, remains among the largest wooden buildings in the world.
Birushana and Dainichi
Both names derive from Vairocana. In the Kegon school he is Birushana, a buddha in monastic dress. In esoteric Buddhism he becomes Dainichi, the cosmic Buddha shown crowned and jewelled. The dress tells you which tradition an image belongs to.
Other images
At Tōshōdaiji in Nara, a seated Birushana in dry lacquer, from the eighth century, is backed by a great halo once set with a thousand small buddhas, a sculptural rendering of the Kegon vision.
Collecting notes
- Birushana images are seldom offered outside temples. Small souvenir and devotional figures of the Great Buddha, and early prints of Tōdaiji, are the accessible forms.
- A halo crowded with small seated buddhas, kebutsu, is a sign of the Kegon vision.
In the collection
Browse the Buddhist Statues and Sacred Art collection. Our collector concierge can search Japan for Nara period and Tōdaiji material.
See also
