Japanese Gallery (Honkan) Room 14
June 8, 2021 (Tue) - July 18, 2021 (Sun)
After Buddhism arrived in Japan, Nachi and the other Kii Mountains flourished as sacred sites of Shingon Buddhism, Shinto mountain worship, and Shugendō, a form of mountain asceticism. The belief in mappō, a dawning age of degeneracy and chaos, also led to many sutra mounds being built here to preserve Buddhist scripture.
In 2004, the area was designated a World Heritage site. The Tokyo National Museum houses around 250 artifacts discovered in 1918 near Kumano Nachi Shrine on the path to Nachi Waterfall, itself revered as the deity Hirō Gongen.
This exhibition features several representative objects from this collection.