Former Kannon-ji temple chief priest Setsuryo Tanaka speaks in front of the seated Kannon Bosatsu on July 6 at the Kyushu National Museum in Dazaifu, Fukuoka Prefecture (©Sankei/Mayuko Ichii).
このページを で読む
A Buddhist statue stolen from a temple in Tsushima, Nagasaki Prefecture, and taken to South Korea is now on public display at the Kyushu National Museum in Dazaifu, Fukuoka Prefecture, roughly 12 years and six months after it disappeared.
The statue's return last May followed a protracted legal dispute after a South Korean temple claimed ownership. The museum has placed it at the center of a new exhibition, Buddhas by Boat: From Asia to Kyushu. Curators hope it will mark a new starting point for cultural exchange between Japan and South Korea.
A Theft That Became a Diplomatic Dispute
The statue, a seated Kannon Bosatsu figure designated as a tangible cultural property of Nagasaki Prefecture, was stolen from Kannon-ji Temple in 2012 by a South Korean theft ring.
South Korean police later recovered it, but Buseoksa Temple in central South Korea argued the statue had originally been looted from Korea by Japanese pirates centuries earlier and asserted ownership.
A South Korean court initially sided with Buseoksa, a ruling that stunned Setsuryo Tanaka, the 79-year-old former head priest of Kannon-ji. The decision was later overturned, and Kannon-ji's ownership was confirmed.
A Priest's Long Wait
Tanaka, who testified in the South Korean court proceedings and spoke repeatedly to domestic media to press his case, said he had assumed at the time that "the political climate made return impossible." He described anti-Japanese sentiment as having strengthened Buseoksa's position in the Korean legal system.
Rather than dwell on the setback, Tanaka said he continued advocating for the statue's return, with cooperation from supporters in both countries eventually leading to the outcome.
After the statue was returned to Japan, Kannon-ji provided 3D scan data so that Buseoksa could install a replica.
Tanaka said a South Korean worshiper's request to look after the statue helped him see that the attachment people in both countries felt toward it was the same, and that he hopes for "an equal, lasting relationship between Japan and South Korea going forward."
More Than 200 Statues Trace Kyushu's Continental Ties
The exhibition runs through August 30. It was organized by museum senior researcher Shin Osawa, who said more than 200 Buddhist images that arrived in Japan from the Asian continent survive in Kyushu, many preserved at small coastal temples rather than major religious institutions.
Tsushima alone, given its location between Japan and the Korean peninsula, holds more than 130 such statues, a concentration Osawa said is unmatched elsewhere in Asia.
Osawa, who examined the Kannon-ji statue in 2009 before the theft, noted that its crown and lotus-shaped pedestal were damaged during the theft. Both are now displayed alongside historical photographs showing the statue's original appearance.
Speaking to South Korean media at a preview event, Osawa said he wanted "people to understand that the statue had been cared for in Japan for centuries in the same way it once was in its country of origin."
He added that war and religious suppression in China and the Korean peninsula "left few surviving Buddhist statues there, giving those that reached Japan particular historical significance."
A symposium bringing together Japanese and South Korean researchers is scheduled to be held at the museum on July 20. Osawa said he hopes the statues on display, including the one from Kannon-ji, can serve as a bridge between Japan, South Korea, and China.
RELATED:
[Speaking Out] Protect Cultural Property from South Korean Thieves
(Read the article in Japanese.)
Author: Mayuko Ichii, The Sankei Shimbun
このページを で読む
