The Stone Begging Bowl of Buddha (仏の御石の鉢, "Hotoke no oishi no hachi") was Buddha's stone begging bowl. In the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, it was believed to be located in India; however, under the instruction to locate it from Princess Kaguya, Kagura tracked it down to a village in Japan. The bowl signifies the earth element and was represented by the color purple.
Kagura manipulated a swarm of demons to attack the village which and retrieve the bowl, but they were unsuccessful. She later confronted the miko Kikyō, who had visited the village after it was attacked and gained possession of the bowl from a dying young girl. To Kagura's surprise, Kikyō surrendered the bowl without a fight, claiming that she had no need of it.
In truth, Kikyō, for reasons similar to Naraku with the Swallow's Cowrie Shell, wanted to draw out Princess Kaguya. Unlike Naraku's reasoning, Kikyō wanted to draw Kaguya out so that she could be destroyed by the half-demon Inuyasha.[1]
Verse
When it was cast into Lake Kawaguchi, Kanna recited these words:
Trivia
- The Stone Begging Bowl of Buddha is based on the one in The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (竹取物語, "Taketori Monogatari").
References
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