Todai-ji, Nara

(Leaf 75) – Looking Back

 

Tim Chamberlain - Tōdai-ji, Nara (2004)

This poem was originally published (along with several others of mine) in the Asahi Shimbun’s Haikuist Network, I forget exactly when, but sometime around 2004-2005. Although this was the only one of my poems which was changed by the editor, David McMurray. He changed the words “through the pillar” to “through a gate.” I can perhaps understand why he did so. Presumably it was in order to make the poem less specific and perhaps more universal for the reader to understand, because without knowing it refers to Tōdai-ji in Nara it really doesn’t make much sense. Inside the temple’s Daibutsu-den, or Great Buddha Hall, there is a wooden pillar near the statue which has a large square hole cut through it at floor-level. The hole was probably cut for a wooden beam to pass through it, but for some reason it has remained empty and un-used for a very long time (the temple was last rebuilt/refurbished in 1709). It is said that being able to climb through this hole in the huge pillar will guarantee you a direct passage to paradise in the afterlife – hence, it is not uncommon to see parents watching while their small children try to wriggle their way through the opening. My poem was written having witnessed just such a sight on a cold day back in January 2004.

 

 

TŌDAI-JI, NARA

 

Passing through the pillar

– paradise contained

in a child’s smile.