English ver. Message from SAWA Kazuki 英訳｜澤和樹学長

The Tenpyō Period Reborn in Reiwa!
Regarding the Project to Reproduce the Standing Statue of Shukongōshin [Skt. Vajrapāṇ] Belonging to Tōdaiji Temple’s Hokkedō [Lotus Hall]

SAWA Kazuki, 
President, Tokyo University of the Arts

The Yabuuchi Laboratory, belonging to the Tokyo University of the Arts Postgraduate Cultural Properties Conservation Course (Sculpture), carries out valuable research and restoration of numerous sculptures, including those designated as National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties. It does not merely preserve the cultural heritage created by people living several hundred, or even more than one thousand years ago, but also performs an important role, employing cutting-edge scientific technology to carry out advanced academic research into the skills and spirituality of the artists of the past, passing this on the next generation. 

The Tenpyō period [729–749] covered the reign of Emperor Shōmu and is famous for the culture that blossomed at this time, but it was also a period that experienced numerous natural disasters and a smallpox epidemic. The famous ‘Great Buddha of Nara’ is a statue of the seated figure of Rushana-butsu (Skt. Vairocana-Buddha) that was commissioned by Emperor Shōmu in an effort to bring relief to humanity. Its creation was not simply a project undertaken by the Imperial Court and government, the Emperor also called out to the people for aid, asking them to donate even ‘a single straw or a single handful of earth,’ and from this we can see that it incorporated the spirit of today’s crowdfunding. So far the Reiwa period has been a time of earthquakes, floods and now the COVID-19 pandemic, but I hope that the efforts of so many people to recreate this statue of Shukongōshin will lead to the blossoming of a new artistic culture in the Reiwa period, like that of the Tenpyō period or the Renaissance in Europe which followed the Plague, serving as a symbol of healing and courage for the people.