By RYO KATO/ Staff Writer
December 30, 2017 at 19:05 JST
NARA--Buddhist statues at Yakushiji temple here got their annual end-of-year cleaning Dec. 29.
The temple's priests were joined by 150 or so worshipers in the main hall of the temple for the ritual, called “Ominugui” (literally, “wiping bodies”).
The hall enshrines the three Yakushi-Sanzon statues.
The priests were responsible for cleaning the statues from the heads to the legs and even the pedestals with material called “jofu” (purification cloth), while others were chanting Hannya-Shingyo sutras.
Volunteer university students also pitched in.
When the work was over, the statues were gleaming again.
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Buddhist priests remove a year's worth of dust and grime from the Yakushi-Nyorai statue, one of the three Yakushi-Sanzon statues, in Yakushiji temple in Nara on Dec. 29. (Ryo Kato)
