Ceremony for Binzuru

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Ceremony for Binzuru(Binzuru mawashi)

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: New Year, January 6
***** Category: Observance

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Explanation

Ceremony for Binzuru, Binzuru mawashi 賓頭盧廻
びんづるまはし, ひんつるまはし, びんずるまわし
善光寺おびんずる回し、賓頭盧回し

Binzuru (Pinzuru) is one of the 16 arhats of Buddhism. His statue is usually outside beside the temple and people come to rub a part of it to heal the aching part of their own body. This type of statue is called "rubbing Buddha statue", nadebotoke　(see below).

This special ceremony occurs on the sixth of January, one day before the "Seven Herbs" ceremony.

On this day at the temple Zenkoo-Ji 善光寺 in Nagano, the statue of Binzuru is dressed with a straw rope around his head. While the believers touch him with bamboo ladles (shamoji 杓), he is carried around the outer shrine and then back to his original place. People pray for health and good luck for the coming year.



長野市の国宝善光寺本堂で１月６日の夜に行われる「びんずる回し」は、新年恒例の行事。釈迦（しゃか）の弟子で、触った場所の痛みや病気が治るとされる「びんずる尊者」の木像を大勢の参拝者が引き回し、無病息災などを祈ります。
　浄土宗一山の住職の読経の後、参拝者が交代で像が置かれた木製の台座から伸びる２本の綱を引っ張り、本堂内を右回りにゆっくりと周回。住職から配られたしゃもじなどでびんずる像に触れ、思い思いに願いを託します。
　©　信州歳時記.冬

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Bindora Baradaja
賓度羅跋羅惰闍

Also called Binzuru (J). Pindola Bharadraja (Skt).
West; resides with 1,000 disciples in Saikudani-shi (Skt. Aparagodani); the most widely revered of the Arhats in Japan; all the others are less known to Japanese lay worshippers, and they rarely serve as the central objects of devotion.
Pindola, however, according to the Flammarion Iconographic Guide on Buddhism, is the Arhat par excellence in Japan, and is mainly worshipped by lay people.

Quote: "In Japan, Pindola is represented as an old man seated on a high-backed chair, with white hair and bushy eyebrows. Statues of him, in painted wood or stone, are usually well worn, since the faithful follow the custom of rubbing a part of the effigy corresponding to the sick parts of their bodies, as he is reputed to have the gift of healing.

He is also very frequently offered red and white bibs and children's caps to watch over the health of babies, so that his statue is often decked in rags. He is represented in painting as an old man seated on a rock, holding in his hand a sort of sceptre (Japanese shaku), or a sutra box and a feather fan.

All the other Arahants are usually worshipped in Japan in his person. In some cases, his efficgy is placed in monastery refectories, as at the Jikido (Shakudo) in Todai-ji Temple (Nara), and in Hieizan."

© About the 16 Arhats (juuroku rakan 羅漢), by Mark Schumacher

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Binzuru Dance (Binzuru odori) in Nagano
長野びんずる 踊り


http://wisteria-ts.cocolog-nifty.com/photos/binzuru/binzuru_11.JPG

... ... ...


Dance with Us at the Binzuru Festival!

www.osk.3web.ne.jp/logos/shinshu/binzuru.html


Click HERE to see some more of the famous Binzuru statues.


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Worldwide use


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Things found on the way

Buddha Statues to rub for good luck
nadebotoke　撫で仏, 撫仏, なでぼとけ　

Binzuru, O-Binzuru sama, is the most famous of them all. His statues are in front of many temples.

Statue of Standing Daruma :
You can touch any part of his body which hurts on your own body and pray for good health. Daruma san is especially known for his strong legs, after all he walked quite a way if legend is true...
Usually we have a statue of Binzuru-sama ビンズルさま　as a healer to touch. You rub him on the spot where your own body hurts, but here our Daruma takes the part of the healer.

Daruma-ji - A Temple in Nishi Izu
by Gabi Greve

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Jizo as a rubbing healer in Asakusa, Tokyo
A healer to touch.



© 白い香り

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Fudo Myo-O at Tempel Yokoyamadera横山寺, 島根県隠岐郡隠岐の島町

“痛いところを撫でてお祈りすると治ります”
If you touch the part that hurts you, you will be healed.



© Nihon no Minwa


Read more about Fudo Myo-O 不動明王 in my BLOG

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Here is a badger to be rubbed for good luck, fukutanuki　福狸.
We found him in front of a ricewine store in Kurayoshi, 2006. His breast was quite worn out, he/she must be a helper for mothers with small babies.



More about the Tanuki and Daruma
狸だるま

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Once I visited a small temple way back in the North of Japan. The touching Buddha was a Kannon Bosatsu in a female incarnation, with rather large breasts. She was seated on a lotus throne on a high podest. Mothers would come to her to touch the breast and pray for milk while breastfeeding.
BUT
The statue was so high up, many mothers could not reach the breasts at all. So it was customary in this temple to touch one of her knees instead. And believe me, the knees where all worn out and shiny!

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Click HERE to see a few more of these touching healers !


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HAIKU

Binzuru-mawashi sentoo ayumu to to narinu

I became
the head of the party
for the Binzuru ceremony

((Rikukawa Naonori))

Binzuru is the wooden statue at Zenko-ji temple . The divine grace is to cure illness, and its annual ceremony is held on January sixth. People hit its head by rice spoons with their familiarity to Binzuru to thank for its works for them for a year.

Shiraobi Haiku Magazine, January 2006
http://homepage2.nifty.com/shirawobi/06.01shuukuEnglish.html#label2

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Binzuru in Nara, Temple Todaiji


© Photo : Nicolas Delerue


Issa and his Haiku about Binzuru Sama

びんずるを一なでなでて木の芽哉
binzuru o hito nade-nadete ki no me kana

giving Saint Binzuru
a rub...
the budding tree

Here, a tree's budding branch (ki no me) is doing the lucky rubbing.


びんづるは撫なくさるる紅葉哉
binzuru wa nade nakusaruru momiji kana

keeping Saint Binzuru
from being rubbed...
a red leaf


Haiga by Nakamura Sakuo

In this comic haiku, an autumn leaf has fallen onto the statue's holy head.
Sakuo Nakamura notes that Binzuru-sama is famous for his bald head, which people rub in hopes of recovering from sickness. Here, a leaf is doing the rubbing, "like a baby's palm."


びんずるの御膝に寝たる雉哉
binzuru no o-hiza ni netaru kigisu kana

in Saint Binzuru's lap
sound asleep...
a pheasant


びんづるの目ばかり光るけさの雪
binzuru no me bakari hikaru kesa no yuki

Saint Binzuru's
eyes glittering...
this morning's snow

Yoshida Miwako sheds further light on this haiku: in a dark temple, votive lamps darken Binzuru's image with soot, but his glass eyes still glitter. It's a pitiful feeling, Yoshida adds, the glittering eyes in the gloom. On this gray winter day, the first big snow of the year twinkles like Binzuru's eyes. See Issa burai (Nagano: Shinano Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1996) 186.



びんずるの御鼻をなでる小蝶哉
binzuru no o-hana o naderu kochô kana

rubbing St. Binzuru's
holy nose...
little butterfly

In the haiku, a butterfly also strokes the saint for good health.

Tr. David Lanoue

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Related words

***** WKD: Ceremonies of Japan Nihon no Gyooji　日本の行事

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