A Million Prayers for Amitabha Buddha and the Lion Dance of Yozuku (1971)

世附の百万遍念仏・獅子舞

In Yamakita, a town in the Ashigarakami District of Kanagawa Prefecture, there is a nenbutsu chanting practice associated with the Noanji Soto Zen temple that has a history of approximately 600 years. The nenbutsu is chanted as men rotate a large strand of 302 prayer beads affixed around a pulley. This is followed by a lion dance (shishimai) that proceeds around all the houses of the village as a purification ritual.

Date of release
1971-10-10
Runtime
25m
Director
Shinkichi Noda

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