title: Otake Dainichi Nyorai
text: # Otake Dainichi Nyorai
  
  Otake Dainichi Nyorai (お竹大日如来 or 於竹大日如来), who is also known as Otake, is a figure in the Japanese Buddhist tradition.
  
  She was a humble maidservant of the Sakuma family in Odenma-cho in Edo, who lived during the 17th century. She was a very religious woman of great Buddhist virtue. She gave all she had to the poor, ate hardly any food, and performed the most menial chores with extreme diligence. A group of mountain ascetics, who were searching for the reincarnation of the Nyorai Buddha, found her. When Otake bent down to pick up a few grains of rice that had fallen on the floor, a halo-like light surrounded her, convincing the ascetics that they had come upon a divine being. Otake is often portrayed with an object behind her head that resembles a halo, or with a shadow or reflection identifying her as a buddha.
  
  