A Million Prayers for Amitabha Buddha and the Lion Dance of Yozuku

Overview

In Yamakita, a town in the Ashigarakami District of Kanagawa Prefecture, there is a nenbutsu chanting practice associated with the Noanji Soto Zen temple that has a history of approximately 600 years. The nenbutsu is chanted as men rotate a large strand of 302 prayer beads affixed around a pulley. This is followed by a lion dance (shishimai) that proceeds around all the houses of the village as a purification ritual.