The Great Buddha of Kyo, Kyo was burned in a fire in the sky.

This is a verse from a warabeki song sung by children in Kyoto in the olden days.

As this song says, Kyoto once had the Great Buddha of Todaiji Temple in Nara,A huge statue of the Great Buddha, six feet and three inches (19 meters) tall, was seated in the temple.The location is now Ochayacho, Yamato-oji Higashi-iru, Higashiyama-ku, Tokyo. The location was in Chayamachi, Yamato-oji Higashi-iru, Higashiyama-ku, present-dayHouhouji TempleThe first is.

Houhouji Temple

The Great Buddha of Kyoto, which retains its image in old postcards

At the time the Great Buddha was seated, the temple wasThe Great Buddha Hall in Kyoto.It was known as the The Great Buddha was erected,Hideyoshi Toyotomi, a man of heaven who loved big things in particular.was.

But then to this great Buddha,A strange fate (bad luck) is brought about.It will be. As if.Implies the fate of Hideyoshi's last years, or rather the fate of the Toyotomi family.As if they had been.

The first misfortune that befell the Great Buddha, which was nearing completion, was in 1596.Fushimi earthquake (March 11, 2011)The Great Buddha was The Great Buddha collapsed in the earthquake. Hideyoshi was so shocked that he began to have strange dreams every night, and finally fell ill and died without seeing the completion of the Great Buddha.

Inheriting the will of his father Hideyoshi, Toyotomi Hideyori, one of Hideyoshi's sons, devoted himself to the reconstruction of the Great Buddha. However, in 1602, in the 7th year of the Keicho Era (1602),During the construction of the rebuilding of the Great Buddha, it was destroyed by a mysterious fire.Later, the temple was rebuilt by Hideyori, but Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was aiming to take over after Hideyoshi's death, complained that the inscription on the large bell cast at the time of the rebuilding, which reads "National Peace and Security," was a slash to Ieyasu's torso.

The words on the temple bell, "Nation's peace and prosperity," and "Kings and vassals are prosperous and happy.
Surrounded by white

Results,The beginning of the downfall of the Toyotomi familyIt is well known that the bell was turned into a This bell still remains at Hokoji Temple and can be seen today.

Temple bell in the precincts of Houkouji Temple

I was once shown the temple for an interview. On that occasion, the inside of the bell shown to me was dimly visible,Human-shaped spotsThe stain was said to be the image of Yododono, Hideyoshi's wife who died of a grudge against the Tokugawa family. I was told that the stain was said to be the figure of Yododono, Hideyoshi's wife who died of a grudge against the Tokugawa family.

Now, the Great Buddha of Kyoto was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt after the Toyotomi family fell, and the bronze statue of the Great Buddha was replaced by a wooden statue, which was used as material for copper coins, but the statue was again reduced to ashes by a lightning strike on a summer night in 1798 (Kansei 10).

The song sung at the time of the disaster was "Kyo no, Kyo no Daibutsu-san wa tenpai ni tsukaete na" ("The Great Buddha of Kyo was burned by a fire in the sky").

And so, for a while, the Great Buddha of Kyoto was not rebuilt, but about 50 years later, in 1843Rebuilt as the Great Buddha of the Half-BodyThe first time the company was founded was in 1973, 130 years later. but 130 years later, in 1973, theanother fire destroyed by fireIt is said that the fire at that time was suspicious. Since then, it has not been rebuilt until now.

By the way, it seems that the straw song mentioned earlier ends with the following lyrics.

™" The front behind you, who ™" Monkey, cackle, cackle, cackle ™

Was the "monkey" a derisive reference to Hideyoshi?　Or was it sung in a friendly way?

The Great Buddha of Kyoto was once one of the most famous tourist attractions. When the time comes for it to be rebuilt, it may become another tourist attraction and an anecdote.