The general character and arrangement of kaimyō can best be understood by the aid of a few typical specimens. The first example is from a beautiful tomb in the cemetery of Kobudera, which is sculptured with a relief representing the Bodhisattva Mahâsthâma (Seishi Bosatsu) meditating. All the text in this instance has been cut upon the face of the monument, to left and right of the icon. Transliterated into Romaji it reads thus:—
(Kaimyō.)
Tei-Shō-In, Hō-sō Myō-shin, Daishi.
(Record.)
—Shōtoku Ni, Jin shin Shimotsuki, jiu-ku nichi.
[Translation:—
—Great Elder-Sister, Wonderful-Reality-Appearing-at-the-Window-of-Law, dwelling in the Mansion of the Pine of Chastity.
—The nineteenth day of the Month of Frost,[65] second year of Shōtoku,[66]—the year being under the Dragon of Elder Water.]
For the sake of clearness, I have printed the posthumous name proper (Hō-sō Myō-shin) in small capitals, and the rest in italics. The first three characters of the inscription,—Tei-Shō-In,—form the name of the temple, or “mansion.” The pine, both in religious and secular poetry, is a symbol of changeless conditions of good, because it remains freshly-green in all seasons. The use of the term “Reality” in the kaimyō indicates the state of unity with the Absolute;—by “Window-of-Law” (Law here signifying the Buddha-state) must be understood that exercise of virtue through which even in this existence some perception of Infinite Truth may be obtained. I have already explained the final word, Daishi (“great elder-sister”).
Less mystical, but not less beautiful, is this Nichiren kaimyō sculptured upon the grave of a young samurai: