Visit Nara

Literally translating to “Wiping Down the Great Buddha,” this ceremony takes place yearly on the morning of August 7 with the aim of keeping Todaiji Temple’s Great Buddha nice and clean. Up to 120 priests and other participants purify themselves in the temple bathhouse and emerge in white ritual clothing and straw sandals. Before the mass dusting commences, sutras are chanted in a rite to symbolically remove the Buddha’s spirit, so as not to be sullied by the feet of the dusters as they rappel down him from the ceiling.