A national treasure called Document Soliciting Donations for Sennyu-ji Temple was transported to a restoration facility in Kyoto on Monday, as the new period for the Tsumugu project got underway.
The document belongs to Sennyu-ji temple in Kyoto, which has ties with the imperial family, and was sent to the Kyoto facility by the Nara National Museum in Nara, which is entrusted with storing it.
In the fiscal 2020 period of the project -- which subsidizes the restoration of cultural assets and is promoted by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Imperial Household Agency and The Yomiuri Shimbun -- the restoration of seven national treasures and important cultural assets were chosen to be subsidized.
It is financed by company donations for the project and part of the revenues from special exhibitions.
In the fiscal 2019 program, work started on restoring eight items, including a Buddhist statue of the saint Fugen Bosatsu, a national treasure stored by the Tokyo National Museum.
Document Soliciting Donations for Sennyu-ji Temple was created by Shunjo, a Buddhist priest in the Kamakura period (ca 1192-1333) who studied Buddhist theories in China in the Southern Song dynasty period and later established Sennyu-ji temple. Its aim was to collect donations for building the temple.
The document is a precious historical record that tells of the social circumstances surrounding Buddhism in those years, and the calligraphic skills used in the document are also highly praised.
Due to degradation caused by aging, paint and black ink have flaked off in some places and cracks have appeared on other parts of the surface of the document.
The restoration work aims to stop more paint and ink coming off and to reinforce the cracked parts from the back. Sheets of backing paper will also be replaced with new ones.
On Monday, temple officials, restoration craftsmen and other people concerned gathered in Nara National Museum, and confirmed the damage to the surface after unrolling the scroll.
The document was placed in a box and transported from the museum very carefully. It was then sent to the restoration facility inside Kyoto National Museum in Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto.
Kosai Fujita, chief administrative official of Sennyu-ji temple, said, "As the 800th anniversary of the passing away of Shunjo will be held in six years time, the timing of this restoration is very meaningful. We hope [the document] will regain its beautiful appearance."
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