| NAGANO, Oct. 17 – Haruo Nishizawa, a 75-year-old farmer in Nagano City, Nagano Prefecture, has built a big Yakushi Nyorai (Medicine Buddha) sculpture measuring 5.4 meters in height and 4 meters in width at home. He recently held an eye-opening ceremony for the statue to which he dedicated more than four years of work. Yakushi Nyorai is said to cure illnesses and save people from suffering and disasters, and Nishizawa, amidst his farm work, carved it with his prayers.
His farm is in the Koedo area of Shinshu-Shinmachi Town in Nagano Prefecture. As you turn off the National Route 19 and head towards Ogawa Village, you can see the impressive wooden statue of the seated Buddha from the road. Nishizawa grows apples, eggplants, cucumbers, and tomatoes. He began curving in January 2020, when the news about the COVID-19 pandemic started to make headlines. Nyorai’s hands and legs are made of big ginkgo trees, and its head and body are made using a method called Yoseki Tsukuri, in which he assembled blocks of several kinds of wood. He also made a funzoe priest robe using lacquer-dyed linen. Instead of a traditional halo, he placed fusuma-e sliding door paintings of the Northern Alps and the rising and setting sun he painted himself. Nishizawa has made over 100 wood sculptures, most of which are Buddha statues. “I am attracted to agriculture and Buddha, maybe because they have something in common, that is they are here for a long time,” he said.  Nishizawa and his Yakushi Nyorai statue |