Ancient Sutra Mounds of Kyushu

In the mid-Heian period, the year 1052 was said to mark the arrival of mappo, which people believed was responsible for frequent natural disasters and the decadence of the aristocracy at the time. According to Buddhist teachings, mappo was a period when Buddhist law would fall into decline, bringing chaos and disorder to the world. Teachings also stated that 5.67 billion years after the arrival of mappo, Maitreya Buddha would appear and cause Buddhism to flourish once more. In order to preserve Buddhist scriptures until this time, transcriptions were sealed inside containers and buried in the ground. These sites are known as sutra mounds.

The oldest extant sutra mound was built in 1007 by court noble Fujiwara no Michinaga at Mount Kinpu, Nara prefecture. The custom of building sutra mounds subsequently spread nationwide, from Kyushu to northern Japan. Northern-Kyushu, like the Kinai region which centers on Kyoto, is particularly well known for its ancient sutra mounds. This exhibition explores aspects of Kyushu sutra mounds with a focus on northern-Kyushu sutra mound artifacts in the Tokyo National Museum collection.

This exhibition is presented as part of the museum's annual archaeological object exchange program.