Exhibition of the Buddhist ashura

Last Sunday, with my wife I went to “The special exhibition of the national treasure Ashura”, shown only for a limited time at Tokyo National Museum (Ueno park). This exhibition commemorates the 1300th anniversary of Kofukuji Temple, Nara and to raise funds for the restoration project of the temple. When we got there, it was around 4 o’clock in the afternoon. It was about 1 hour before the closing time, so there were not many people there and we took time to have a good look around. One of the people there told us that they had so many people visit in the morning that most of them had to wait for 1 hour to get inside.

The Ashura is a national treasure earmarked as one of the important cultural assets of the country. It must be one of the most famous Buddhist statues in Japan. It is a wooden statue made almost 1300 years ago from today. With 3 faces, it stands with 6 arms, some palms facing toward the sky. Although it has experienced repeated fires and arson at the temple and wars, it still holds the original shape even after 1300 years; so it is really precious that we can still see it right in front of our eyes. It is usually kept in a glass case at the Kofukuji Temple. To see its faces, we could only see from a distance and could only have the front view. But this time, it is exposed and we were allowed to get as close as 1m to the statue, checking it from a 360 degree view. I do not think I would have another chance like this in my life time.

Looking close, Ashura’s 3 faces are all attractive and small, and it has a tiny body. Most Buddhist statues we see at temples usually look angry or smiley but Ashura does not look angry or smiley. But it is not emotionless. It has a dignified expression on its faces – it was like the love it has sent to so many people over a long, long time. If we look at things philosophically, without any dark side of human nature such as desires, foul passions, distresses, etc., we might look like the statue one day.

Because it was just before closing time and not many people around, I stood in front of the statue for a long time. I felt really good after feeling pure energy coming out of Ashura.

We are lucky because we live in Tokyo where this sort of rare art and cultural exhibitions always come not only from all over Japan but all over the world. I have been to a lot of exhibitions of art and Buddhist statues. The organizers of the exhibition said that it was extremely rare opportunity and not going to be repeated in this century. I was incredibly lucky.

On the way home, we stopped at “Ameyoko”, a famous wholesale market. It was also just about closing time, so I bought a big chunk of oily belly tuna cheap after a bit of negotiation of the price. Have I used up all my luck?


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