Posted on 08/06/2002 9:16:18 AM PDT by vannrox
The Asahi Shimbun
OTSU-Four small Buddha statuettes, dating back more than 1,200 years, were discovered inside the statue of a Buddhist saint at Ishiyama Temple in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, researchers said over the weekend.
The researchers from Nara National Museum said it was the first known discovery of four small statuettes together inside a single Buddhist statue.
The artifacts were discovered when priests at Ishiyama Temple unveiled the 5.3-meter-tall Nyoirin Kanzeon Bosatsu statue Thursday. The sacred statue, designated by the government as a nationally important cultural property, is only shown to the public once every 11 years. As Nara Museum researchers examined the statue, they found a small space believed to have been made in the Kamakura Era (1192-1333) inside the back of the statue where the statuettes rested. The four statuettes are between 21 and 30 centimeters tall, and are all made of copper.
The oldest of the four, a statuette of the Buddha Nyorai, can be dated back to the Asuka Period (late sixth to early seventh centuries), researchers said. The other two statuettes, of Kannon Bosatsu and Bosatsu (Bodhisattva), dates back to the Hakuho Period (late seventh to early eighth century). The second statuette of Kannon Bosatsu is believed to be from the Tenpyo Period, in the eighth century.
The statue that housed the four artifacts is the main image worshipped at the Ishiyama Temple, which was established in the mid-eighth century by a high-ranking priest from the Todaiji Temple in Nara.
The four statuettes will be displayed at Nara National Museum starting Friday.(IHT/Asahi: August 5,2002)
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