仏陀 budda Buddha

仏陀 is the Buddha as Japan writes it today, with 仏, the everyday shape of 佛. It names a title, not one man: most often Śākyamuni, and also anyone who has truly woken. The word is also read butsuda. Japan also writes it 佛陀, with the character in its formal dress.

The word is the Sanskrit buddha, the one who has woken, written in Chinese by its sound: first as 浮屠 and as 佛 alone, then, from about the fourth century, in the fuller 佛陀 that Japan took with the Buddhist books.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 仏陀 / 佛陀.

佛 is the shape of scripture and of the Kangxi dictionary, the form Japanese type printed until 1949, and the only form a reader in China, Taiwan or Hong Kong knows; the sutras print it, and the 佛光寺派 and 本門佛立宗 keep it in their names. A Buddhist piece in 佛陀 says this is the word as the sutras write it. Neither form is an error. The choice is register: the canon's form here, the living Japanese form above.

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