Commemorative Special Exhibition, Byodoin Hosho-kan Museum the 20th Anniversary

Exhibition period: [The First] April 6th (Thu.), 2021 to July 7th (Wed.), 2021 / [The Second] July 8th (Thu.), 2021 to October 8th (Fri.), 2021

In 2021, the Byodoin Hosho-kan Museum will celebrate the 20^thanniversary since its grand opening. The museum inherited important cultural properties of its predecessor, the temple treasure house, while three of the temple’s independent departments, Preservation, Restoration, and Public Opening, were also integrated as a part of the museum’s function. As a result, our museum became Japan’s first government-registered museum connected to a temple.

For Byodoin Temple, with its long history spanning nearly 1000 years, how to restore its cultural properties is of utmost significance. The large size of the doors for carrying objects into the museum attests to how seriously this is considered. Although Byodoin Temple possesses a number of invaluable properties, but the Phoenix Hall and its main image, Amida Nyorai, have a crucial significance. The doors of the museum were designed to be large enough to let the Amida Nyorai be carried into the museum without any difficulties should there be an emergency.

At the same time, our museum possesses a wide range of valuable articles which were discovered during the research of historical treasures belonging to each sub-temple. In order to hand them on to the future, we have taken on a number of restoration projects simultaneously. This special exhibition introduces our museum’s 20-year history; the first term exhibition will feature “Repairing” and the second term will feature “Restoration.”

During the first term, some articles will be displayed to the public for the first time along with an explanation of the museum’s development during the repairing period. One such article is the painting, Amida Raiko-zu (Amida Nyorai descends from the Pure Land), by Sadatsuna Sakon (a Buddhist painter in the early Edo period). In the second term, we will introduce the world of restoration work undertaken as a result of research during the repair processes.

Many of the exhibited works date from the distant past. We hope that you can imagine the time when the temple treasures were first created through our activities of repair and restoration.

（初公開）阿弥陀三尊像(高麗仏画) 伝張思恭 高麗時代 絹本著色・軸 浄土院【前期】

（初公開）阿弥陀来迎図(左近貞綱作) 木村貞綱(徳栄) 江戸時代 紙本著色・軸 浄土院【中期】

（修理後初公開）平等院境内古図(甲図) 江戸時代 紙本墨画・パネル・額 浄土院【後期】

（初公開）南無仏太子像 木・顔料 木彫 最勝院【通期】

（宇治市指定品）不動明王立像及び二童子像 平安・江戸 木・木彫 平等院【通期】

観音堂厨子扉絵 二天図 木村徳応 江戸時代 板戸著色・扉【通期】