Kamakura & Ko

April 5th 2017


Daibutsu — The Mecca of Posing Asian Photography

In front of the big Buddha (probably also ranked pretty high on the list of the largest sitting bronze Buddhas), any picture you take in the approximate direction of the statue will have at least three selfie sticks in the frame all by itself.

Gretchenfrage, the second

A young couple stands in the grounds of one of the countless temples of Kamakura — in front of them a big stone in a kind of sandbox, in their hands they hold small clay discs, which can be thrown and shattered against the stone as a symbol of all things evil or bad.
She reaches out and hurls the disc against the rock and bursts out laughing — missed it. The small piece of clay lies undamaged in a sea of ​​broken shards.
Still laughing, she steps over, picks her disc out of the pile, and throws again — this time with success.

One temple along the trail, people launder money (literally) in a grotto with which they will fulfil themselves a special wish.
At every temple, you can also buy little notes with 'fortunes' that predict good or bad things to come. But if it doesn't promise a prosperous future, that's half as bad: Just knot the paper around a nearby branch and try again.

Nobody really takes this all too seriously — and that also reflects what I have heard so far about Japanese Buddhism: Religion has less to do here with strict rules and dark, quiet churches than for us. Everything is a bit more playful and more light-hearted than I am used to. Of course, you see people who pray deeply in front of the temples, too — but in general I feel like everyone is doing what makes sense to them in the moment, and a selfie at the shrine is just a natural part of that.