Inori no Mori祈りの杜working title

Buddha (nyorai)

Yakushi Rurikō Nyorai

薬師琉璃光如来やくしるりこうにょらい

An illustration of Yakushi Rurikō Nyorai created for this site
An original illustration made for this site.

One of the Seven Medicine Buddhas (Shichibutsu Yakushi). In the first vow in the Yakushi Rurikō Shichibutsu Hongan Kudoku Kyō, the vow is taught as a wish to illuminate limitless worlds with one's own light so that people may become equal to the buddha.

This introduction is based on materials from Shōhōin (Tobi Fudō). It is summarized within the scope of the beliefs and traditions those materials convey, and does not present explanations or customs common to all schools, shrines, and temples.

English pages are the site’s own translations of its Japanese pages. The sources cited are in Japanese. 日本語で読む

Wishes for people, seen in the first vow

In the first vow of the same sutra, the vow is taught as a wish to illuminate limitless worlds with one's own light so that people may become equal to the buddha. This is one example of the original vows taught in the sutra and does not describe all of this buddha's vows.

Source: CBETA/義浄訳

The Pure Land described in the sutra

In the Yakushi Rurikō Shichibutsu Hongan Kudoku Kyō translated by Gijō, the name of this Pure Land is given as "Jōruri," and it is described as lying in the east, beyond countless buddha worlds.

Source: CBETA/義浄訳・飛不動尊 正宝院

Seven Pure Lands in the east, and prayers for good health

The Seven Medicine Buddhas are a group of buddhas said to dwell in seven Pure Lands in the east, from Zenmyōshō Kichijōō Nyorai to Yakushi Rurikō Nyorai. Within Yakushi devotion, they are enshrined by people praying for relief from the suffering of illness and other things. The Pure Land of the last of them, Yakushi Rurikō Nyorai, is called the Jōruri Pure Land.

Source: 飛不動尊 正宝院

A prayer handed down as the Shichibutsu Yakushi rite

Shōhōin introduces the Shichibutsu Yakushi rite, in which seven Yakushi images are enshrined, and the tradition that Ryōgen of the Tendai school prayed for safe childbirth for the regent family (sekkanke). This is the history of a rite performed with the seven buddhas as one set.

Source: 飛不動尊 正宝院

Related kami and buddhas

Sources (in Japanese)