"Children Washing the Great Buddha" — Okamoto Kiichi

The scene in this illustration of the annual ceremony of cleaning the Great Buddha of Todai-ji Temple in Japan is such a delight and demonstration of – Daibutsu no o-minugui. About 230 people, including priests, clean and dust this fifteen-meter statue, the largest and oldest bronze Buddha in the world. This illustration first appeared in the pages of Kodomo no Kuni, a well-known children’s publication, in 1927.

Okamoto Kiichi (1888-1930) was Japan’s most popular children’s illustrator in the 1920s.

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