camphor wood

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Made from special "golden" camphor wood
oogon kuzu 黄金樟

This is a special wood gained only from very large trees. It has special whirls and patterns and a sheen of gold.





Detail of the head



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Daruma statue made from Golden Camphor wood




mountain retreat ...
a hermit catching
dragons


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This large 11-headed gilt statue, built sometime in the 8th century, stands over nine meters high, making it the largest wooden statue in Japan. Folklore says this wooden statue was carved from a giant camphor tree by the monk Tokudo in 721 AD, who made two images from the same tree.

The first image was enshrined in a temple in Nara Prefecture, while the second (the statue now at Hase Dera in Kamakura) was cast into the sea with prayers that it float to an area where it had greatest karmic connection and thereafter save souls in that area. According to legend, it washed up on shore in 736, at Nagai, in the Miura Peninsula, slightly south of Kamakura, glowing brightly, it is said, and later it was transferred to its present site at Hase Dera in Kamakura.

source : Mark Schumacher
KANNON BOSATSU, KANNON BODHISATTVA


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Daruma Museum, Japan

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