FOLIA BIOLOGICA ET GEOLOGICA 61/1, 37–43, LJUBLJANA 2020 BUCKWHEAT AND AVALOKITEŚVARA AJDA IN AVALOKITEŚVARA Yutaka HONDA1 http://dx.doi.org/10.3986/fbg0065 ABSTRACT Buckwheat and Avalokiteśvara I investigated the situation of the dedication ceremony of buckwheat noodle in two temples. The buckwheat noodle is dedicated to Avalokiteśvara in both temples. These tem- ples have long history from the foundation, however these ceremonies are never old, if anything new. Buckwheat pro- duction increased three times in the past thirty years in Japan. Domestic buckwheat is recognized as good taste and good quality. People visit temple and eat the famous buck- wheat noodle in temple town. The interests or merits in the both of restaurants’ owners and the temple’s priests agree each other. Increasing of production gives birth to new con- cerned industry or activity of old industry. We can see that the increase of the crop production has the new potential in the human culture. Key words: buckwheat, hand-made buckwheat noodle, Avalokiteśvara, Buddhism temple IZVLEČEK Ajda in Avalokiteśvara V dveh templjih je avtor raziskoval obred posvečenja ajdovih rezancev. V obeh so ajdovi rezanci posvečeni božanstvu Avalokiteśvara. Templja imata dolgo zgodovino, toda svečanosti posvečene ajdi so se začele šele v novejšem času. V zadnjih tridesetih letih se je obseg pridelovanja ajde na Japonskem potrojil. Na Japonskem pridelana domača ajda je cenjena zaradi dobrega okusa in kakovosti. Ljudje obiskujejo tempelj, da bi v tempeljskem mestu jedli znano ajdo. Lastniki restavracij in svečeniki v templju skupaj skr- bijo za kakovost. Povečana izdelava testenin omogoča pojav- ljanje novih izdelovalcev in razvoj dosedanjih. Povečano pridelovanje ajde je pomembno tudi z vidika kulturnega raz- voja. Ključne besede: ajda, ročno izdelane ajdove testenine, Avalokiteśvara, budistični tempelj 1 Headquarters, NARO, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 3058517 Japan, e-mail: hon- day@affrc.go.jp YUTAKA HONDA: BUCKWHEAT AND AVALOKITEŚVARA 38 FOLIA BIOLOGICA ET GEOLOGICA 61/1 – 2020 1 INTRODUCTION The domestic production of buckwheat increased three times of 1980’s in Japan. Present cultivated area in- creased from about 20,000 ha in 1986 to 63,900 ha in 2018 (Figure 1). According to the increase of buck- wheat production the related industries have been acti- vated. Especially the industry of flour millers and buckwheat noodle restaurants increased. Buckwheat noodle restaurants are often located in temple towns which spreads in front of gates of the temples from old times in Japan. The guests of these restaurants are mainly the visitors of the temple to pray or for sight- seeing. Therefore owners of the restaurants pray to the temple for thriving business or good harvest of buck- wheat. And they execute the ceremony of the dedica- tion of buckwheat noodle for Buddha in a special term, for example buckwheat festival. I am reporting about the ceremony of dedication of buckwheat noodles in two temples. Figure 1: The increase of cultivated area in domestic buckwheat production in Japan Graf 1: Povečanje obsega domačega pridelovanja ajde na Japonskem I investigated two famous Buddhist temples near our organization. There are many buckwheat noodle res- taurants in front of the gate of these two temples, as if they seem street or town of buckwheat noodle re- straunts. These streets are called as the temple town in Japan like cathedral town near church in western world. One is Jindaiji temple which belongs to Tendai sect, whose general temple is Hieizan Enryakuji temple in Shiga prefecture. The other is Izurusan Manganji temple which generally is called as Idurusan Manganji, which belongs to Chisan school of Shingon sect, whose general temple is Iobusan Negoroji Chishakuin temple, in Kyoto city. The ceremony about the dedication of buckweat for Avalokiteśvara is performed once a year. I partici- pated in the ceremony, and I went to the temple and heard the details of the ceremony from concerned per- sons of buckwheat noodle restaurant union, tourism association or the temples. 2 METHODS OF RESEARCH YUTAKA HONDA: BUCKWHEAT AND AVALOKITEŚVARA 39FOLIA BIOLOGICA ET GEOLOGICA 61/1 – 2020 'Avalokiteśvara’ is written as 'अवलोकि त शेव्र' by devanargary, which is synthesized from avalokita 'अवलोकि त ' which means 'observe' and 'iśvara' 'ईशव्र ' who is a person with supernatural power, translated by Xuanzang who was a famous Buddhist priest in China, AD 7C. And the other word 'Avalokitasvara' 'अवलोकि त शेव्र ' was the word synthesized from avalokita 'अवलोकि त ' and svara 'सव्र ' which means sound, that is 'observation of sound' in old translation by Kumārajīva who was also translator of the Buddhist priest, arrived from the Western Regions of China, AD 4C to 5C. These two translations are showed as '观自在/観自在' and '观音/観音' in Chinese letters, respectively. The translation by Kumārajīva was very popular and fa- miliar with East Asian people, threfore Japanese peo- ple mainly use the latter word '观音/観音'. 3 WHAT IS AVALOKITEŚVARA ? 4 JINDAIJI TEMPLE 4.1 Profile of Jindaiji-Temple Jindaiji-Temple is located at Chofu, Tokyo, which be- longs to Tendai Sect whose main believed sutra is lotus of sutra which is very popular one in East Asia, China, Korea and Japan. Avalokiteśvara is written in the 25 chapters of this Sutra, and he rescue people with trou- bles. And the owners of restaurants dedicated the Avalokiteśvara to wish thriving business or the safety of food for the temple (Photo 1). And they open the ceremony of dedication once a year in a buckwheat fes- tival term of autumn. Photo 1: Avalokiteśvara in Temple town of Jindaiji-Temple. Slika 1: Avalokiteśvara v tempeljskem mestu templja Jindaiji YUTAKA HONDA: BUCKWHEAT AND AVALOKITEŚVARA 40 FOLIA BIOLOGICA ET GEOLOGICA 61/1 – 2020 4.2 The order of ceremony 1. Chief priest march with chefs of buckwheat noo- dles and other priests from the priest’s quarter to the front of main temple. 2. Buckwheat chefs dedicates their technics about making buckwheat, making dough from buck- wheat flour, stretching the dough and making the belt, cutting the noodle belt for making buckwheat noodles (Photo 2). Priests respond the chanting of Photo 2: Dedication of making buckwheat noodles in front of the main hall of the Jindaiji -Temple Slika 2: Posvetitev izdelave ajdovih rezancev pred glavnim poslopjem templja Jindaiji Buddhist hymns, kind of religious chorus at the same time in front of main temple. 3. They march from there to the statue of Avalokiteśvara with buckwheat noodles. 4. They dedicate the noodles for Avalokiteśvara in sutra chanting and people offer incense. 5. They march back to the priest’s quarter. 6. Visitors eat the dedicated buckwheat noodles in the priest’s quarter. 5 IDURUSAN MANGANJI TEMPLE 5.1 Profile of Idurusan Manganji -Temple Idurusan Manganji Temple is located at Tochigi whose principal image is the Thousand Armed Avalokiteśvara. Many buckwheat noodle restaurants locate in front of the gate of Manganji - Temple. The Festival of buck- wheat exposed to cold are held in January. And the dedication ceremony of buckwheat noodles is held at the same time. YUTAKA HONDA: BUCKWHEAT AND AVALOKITEŚVARA 41FOLIA BIOLOGICA ET GEOLOGICA 61/1 – 2020 5.2 The order of ceremony 1. Meditation by sitting under a water fall (Photo 3) 2. Dedication ceremony of making buckwheat noodles in front of the main temple (Photo 4). 3. Homa ceremony in main temple (Photo 5) 4. After that people or visitors can eat the new buck- wheat noodles made from buckwheat grain ex- posed to cold Photo 3: Meditation by sitting under a water fall in Manganji- Temple. Slika 3: Meditacija pod slapom v templju Manganji 6 DISCUSSION I have seen buckwheat festival and concerned ceremo- nies at two temples. These temples have a long history from the foundation. And they have many important and old cultural resources. Especially Jindaiji-Temple is proclaimed as the National Treasure, the Buddha statue is from Hakuho period of 1200 years ago. Com- pared with these resources the ceremony or festival on buckwheat is not so old. ‘Jindaiji Buckwheat Festival’ was 37th and ‘Idurusan Dedication of Buckwheat Ex- posed to Cold’ was eleventh. Buckwheat was not so im- portant crop in Japanese agriculture about thirty years ago. However after that the domestic production of buckwheat increased for three times. The consumers consider that domestic buckwheat is very important from the viewpoint of quality or taste. The activity of industries concerned with buckwheat become popular in increasing the domestic production. The restaurants utilize the domestic buckwheat naturally, because do- mestic is recognized as good quality in taste. The good tasting buckwheat noodles make the fun and domestic YUTAKA HONDA: BUCKWHEAT AND AVALOKITEŚVARA 42 FOLIA BIOLOGICA ET GEOLOGICA 61/1 – 2020 production is increased. The buckwheat noodle restau- rants become popular and gather people to temple or restaurant. Interests concerned in buckwheat matched be- tween temple and restaurant. Here new ceremonies or festivals were born in the temple towns. Increasing of crop production give birth of new industry or in- creased activity of old industry. We can state that the increase of crop production has new potential in our life and culture. Photo 4: Dedication to Avalokiteśvara in front of the main hall of Manganji-Temple. Slika 4: Čaščenje Avalokiteśvare pred glavno stavbo templja Manganji. 7 REFERENCES Jindaiji official site. https://www.jindaiji.or.jp/ Jindaiji buckwheat noodle restaurant union. https://chofu.com/web/jindaiji_soba/ Idurusan Manganji. https://www.idurusan.com/ Iduru Sightseeing Associatin. https://www.facebook.com/idutochigi YUTAKA HONDA: BUCKWHEAT AND AVALOKITEŚVARA 43FOLIA BIOLOGICA ET GEOLOGICA 61/1 – 2020 Photo 5 : Homa ceremony in the main hall of the Manganji-Temple. Slika 5: Svečanost v glavni stavbi templja Manganji.