Otake Dainichi Nyorai

Otake dainichi grave

Otake Dainichi Nyorai (お竹大日如来 or 於竹大日如来), who is also known as Otake, is a figure in the Japanese Buddhist tradition. She was thought to be a reincarnation of Vairocana [Japanese : 毘盧遮那佛] in Japan. Otakes cult is also associated with the religious practice of Shugendo.[1]

Life

Take (or Takejo[1]) lived in the early part of the 17th century. The common form of her name Otake derives from honorific speech [Japanese:bikago] with the prefix of adding on the letter O at the beginning for women a common practice in the Edo period.

Otake originated from Shonai in Yamagata , but ended up working as a maid-servant for the Sakuma family [1]in Odenma-cho in Edo. The area situated in the Nihonbashi commercial district of central Edo, was the center of the city's dry-goods and textile trade, with merchant establishments dealing in silk fabrics and finished garments.[2]Sakuma Zenpachi was the head of this family as well as the town-head of Odemna-cho.[1] Due to her designation as a maid-servant [Japanese: gejo], Otake was most likely from the lower class[3] and most of her work would have taken place in the kitchen.

Otake was a very religious woman of great Buddhist virtue. She gave all she had to the poor, ate hardly any food, and performed the most menial chores with extreme diligence.[4] Otake would instead gather nourishment from scraps from the drain-board [Japanese: sunokoyuka (すのこ床) or mizuya 水屋].[5][Note 1]

A group of Shugendo mountain ascetics, who were searching for the reincarnation of the Nyorai Buddha, found her. When Otake bent down to pick up a few grains of rice that had fallen on the floor, a halo-like light surrounded her, convincing the ascetics that they had come upon a divine being.[1] Otake is often portrayed with an object behind her head that resembles a halo, or with a shadow or reflection identifying her as a buddha.[6]

Death

Otake is said to have died in 1638,[1] while other sources put her year of death at June 15, 1680.

Veneration

The Otake Dainichi-do shrine built to honour her memory Arasawaji-Shozen-in is said to have been built in 1666. Lady Keishōin (Japanese: 桂昌院) the mother of Tokugawa Iyeasu was a patron of the shrine and donated a wrapping cloth and a box.

It is believed that if you visited Otakes shrine at Shinko-in temple you would find good maids.

Cultural depictions

Otake was depicted in satirical prints,[7] with subjects such as kitchen implements pilgrimaging to worship Otake and playing ken with deities Okina Inari and Datsue-ba.[1] The connection between the three deities were their association with clothing.[7]

Notes

  1. ↑ A drain-board [Japanese: sunokoyuka (すのこ床) or mizuya 水屋] was a cooking implement in the kitchen made of slats of bamboo tied together with rope/cotton thread and through which waste water and scraps from cooking was disposed of through a drain.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Castiglioni, Andrea; Rambelli, Fabio; Roth, Carina (2020-11-12). Defining Shugendo: Critical Studies on Japanese Mountain Religion. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-350-17940-0.
  2. ↑ "Silk-goods Lane, Odenma-cho (Odenma-cho gofukudana), from the series "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)" by Utagawa Hiroshige — Japanese Woodblock Print". myhanga.com. Retrieved 2026-06-03.
  3. ↑ Nakamura, Takafusa; Hayami, Akira; Odaka, Kōnosuke (2003). The Economic History of Japan, 1600-1990: Economic history of Japan, 1914-1955 : a dual structure. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-828907-4.
  4. ↑ Joly, Henri L., Legend in Japanese Art, Charles E. Tuttle Co., Rutland Vermont, 1967, pp. 396-99
  5. ↑ "JAANUS / sunoko 簀子". www.aisf.or.jp. Retrieved 2026-06-04.
  6. ↑ Arts and Designs of Japan
  7. 1 2 Faure, Bernard (2026-02-28). From Stars to Stones: Gods of Medieval Japan, Volume 4. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-9979-0.


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