From the Dedication Ceremony
to the Present Day
 - Great Buddha, thereafter -

　




The 4th year of the Tempyo-Katsuho era (752): The "Dedication Ceremony of Great Buddha" was held, in which life is put into the image of Great Buddha by drawing pupils on the eyes of Buddha with a brush.
The officiating priest of the dedication ceremony was a Brahman from India,Bodai Senna.
Rare music and dances of China, Korea and other countries were also performed in the ceremony.
The ceremony was the largest international event in East Asia those days.
Todai-ji Temple was required to function for the protection and welfare of the nation.
It was also required as a place for studying the teachings of Buddhism.
An academic system was organized to study 6 sects of Nara Buddhism including Kegon, Hosso and Sanron sects.
The temple as a place of studying 6 sects had a function of what we call a national university.
It was the Kegon sect that was respected most of all.
Buddha Vairocana of the Kegon sect was enshrined as the main object of worship.
However, in the second year of Saiko (855), Buddha's head fell down in a big earthquake.
Moreover, in the long-standing battles between the Minamoto and the Taira clans, Taira-no-Shigehira set fire to Nara in the 4th year of Jisho (1180) and Daibutsu-den Hall was burned down.
Though the hall was reconstructed, it was destroyed at another war in the 10th year of Eiroku (1567), during the Age of Warring States.
The image of Great Buddha, which had been long left unprotected from the weather, was repaired.
The dedication ceremony was held in the 5th year of Genroku (1692), and "the completion ceremony" was conducted in the 6th year of Hoei (1709) to celebrate the construction of the Daibutsu-den Hall.
Later, in the 1st year of Meiji (1868), a policy was issued for the separation of Shintoism and Buddhism. (Shintoism, separated from Buddhism, was regarded as the state religion.)
As the result, Buddhist temples in Nara declined and the Daibutsu-den Hall came to be neglected.
However, under these circumstances, the hall was repaired.
Now we hace its present buildings through the Showa Grand Repair.