Nigatsudo Temple 二月堂

May 1st, I left Nara YH at 7 am. I wanted to take a walk without lots of tourists.
At first, I visited the tomb of the Emperor Shomu which was a mound covered with woods. It was quiet.
Then I was walking toward to Nigatsudo, I met lots of children and their teachers. It seemed they were on the school trip.
Nigatsudo is famous for the water-drawing ceremony (OMIZUTORI) in March. I've seen the ceremony on TV. It was impressive. The monks were holding torches and ran along the hall. It made "fire falls". The visiters tried to get the sparks of torches. They believed that if they got the sparks they would be healthy.

５月初め、静かな奈良の町をお散歩しようと、７時に奈良YHを出発。
鹿たちはのんびり、朝ごはん。
二月堂へ近づくと、小学生達があらわれて、二月堂は小学生で鈴なり状態。
毎年３月、”お水取り”をニュースで見てた、二月堂。
まわりには、三月堂、四月堂。　小学生達が過ぎ去った後は、とても静か。



This building stood near Nigatsudo. It's a storage facility made of logs as same as Shousouin.
I haven't seem Shousouin, so I imagined what Shousouin looked like. It's much smaller than Shousouin, though.

ここには、手向山八幡宮の校倉もあり。正倉院もこんな感じなのかな？



This is Todaiji Temple the Emperor Shomu orderd the construction in the 8th century. Daibutsu in the building was huge.
The ceremony for the Emperor Shomu was held on that day.

東大寺。この日は、年に一度の聖武天皇祭の日。