Welcome Nara

Michael R. Cunningham, Curator of Japanese and Korean Art

While virtually all Westerners who travel to Japan make it a point to visit Tokyo's bustling urban attractions and Kyoto's many famous temple and palace gardens, only a relatively small number venture to Nara, just 30 minutes south of Kyoto station. In part this is no doubt due to modern time constraints as well as to Kyoto's innumerable cultural attractions, nurtured since its founding in 794. The political seat of government for some 700 years, and the nation's intellectual and artistic center until the 19th century, Kyoto continues to enjoy not only a convenient location on the country's major transportation routes, but also status as the unrivaled home of Japanese cultural expression and traditional learning.

Yet some 100 years earlier, at the very beginning of the eighth century, the founding of the nation of peoples now known as Japan occurred in Nara. The selection of this spot and the events that led to its official recognition by the various clan groups which then comprised the population constitutes one of the most riveting historical episodes in Japanese history. Indeed, while Nara's more renowned neighbor to the north continues to transform itself into a sophisti cated, contemporary Westernized city, Nara's features remain essentially unchanged.

The city's integrity has been maintained due to a number of factors, including geography, a relatively stable population, a modest regional economy, andsignificantlyits recognition by succeeding generations of Japanese as the birthplace of their nation and of Japanese Buddhism. Zealously protected by local, state, and national laws against encroachment by modern developers seeking financial gain, Nara today provides the clearest, most complete picture of one of East Asia'sindeed, one of the world'sgreat cities of antiquity. Here, at the eastern terminus of the famous Silk Route which stretched across several thousands of land and nautical miles from the Mediterranean basin to the Nara plain on the island of Honshu, the rich fabric of Asian cultures, languages, ideas, artifacts, government, and religion settled into an accepted pattern of life.

Officially established in 710 as the capital of the nation and the residence of the imperial family, the city was organized using a grid pattern of streets whose focus was the imperial palace grounds. The land outside the walls surrounding the palace grounds was dotted with impressive Buddhist monastic compounds. Either supported by the emperor or by aristocratic patronage, these religious institutions exerted considerable influence in the governing of the state. The city's six great temples and their eminent abbots assumed pivotal roles in the affairs of eighth-century Nara.

Pre-eminent among these was the "Great Eastern Temple," the Todai-ji, which housed a colossal seated bronze Buddha--the Daibutsu--that is still venerated by Japan's faithful. This reverence derives from the imperial origins of the temple and its subsequent role as the symbol of the felicitous conjoining of state and religion in Japanese society. It was the emperor Shomu (reigned 724-49), the adroit sovereign who successfully brought about the unification of the country's rival political factions, who inspired the founding of the Todai-ji. A devout practitioner of the Buddhist faith (introduced into the country by Korean monks only 200 years earlier), Shomu sought to establish a venerable Buddhist institution from which this young creed could be actively promulgated, and at which the training and education of young acolytes could take place.

He was aided in these efforts by his consort Komyo; (701-760), who provided land from her estate for the fabrication of the colossal sculpture and then the erection of a great hall to shelter it. She also commissioned thousands of sacred texts (sutras) to be transcribed at the imperial scriptorium for dispersal to officially recognized temples located in each of the country's provinces. On the one hand, the cumulative effect of these construction projects--particularly at the Todai-ji--was to nearly bankrupt the nation. On the other hand, the rigor of the initiatives so clarified and strengthened the fundamental spiritual values of the Japanese people that the ensuing well-being and efficacy of the faith was never again in doubt, and continues unabated to this day.

As befitted Nara's international community, more than 10,000 Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Indian Buddhist monks attended the formal Eye-opener ceremony of the Daibutsu in 852. The Horyu-ji ("Temple of the Exalted Law"), Yakushi-ji ("Temple of the Healer Buddha"), Daikandai-ji ("Great Official Temple"), Saidai-ji ("Great Western Temple"), and several other Nara area temples predate this historic consecration of church and state. The vicissitudes of their institutional histories also embraced Nara's demise as the nation's capital in 794, when it was moved abruptly by imperial edict north toward Kyoto; its restoration in the early 13th century following the wholesale destruction from the civil wars; a repetition of this scenario in the 16th century; and then neglect in the 17th and 18th centuries until a wrenching, imperially sanctioned divorce from national support in the late 19th century.

After its great temples had fallen into even graver circumstances early in this century, Japanese Buddhism arose from the ashes like the proverbial phoenix to salvage its glorious past, renew itself, and set about preserving its unparalleled cultural monuments. Thus the Horyu-ji--the oldest Buddhist temple complex in the world--is recognized by unesco as one of its World Cultural Monuments. Four years ago the Todai-ji was selected by UNESCO to inaugurate a worldwide series of concerts by popular musicians from many nations promoting the theme of world peace. And this summer's upcoming exhibition, Buddhist Treasures from Nara, brings to conclusion a government-sponsored project by Japan's three national museums working closely with three museum partners from the Western world to promote cultural understanding and the appreciation of one another's art collections.

To the benefit of Cleveland and the northeast Ohio community, as well as all those interested in the religious art, thought, and practices of Japan and its East Asian neighbors, this exhibition constitutes the most important group of Japanese Buddhist art ever to come to America. Included among the 89 works of art are 13 objects designated as National Treasures and 44 works named Important Cultural Properties by the governmental agency mandated since the 1930s with the identification, protection, and preservation of Japan's cultural heritage. The paintings, sculpture, ritual implements, and excavated objects belong largely to the collection at the Nara National Museum, the primary repository of Buddhist art in Japan. Also included are several extraordinary objects generously lent by Nara area temples, which enjoy particularly close relationships with the museum.

As this special exhibition of classical Japanese Buddhist art from the seventh through the 15th centuries opens, the 100 Asian paintings assembled from the Cleveland Museum of Art's collections for exhibit at the Nara National Museum (February and March) and Tokyo's Suntory Museum of Art (May and June) come back to our museum for a deserved rest. We hope the spirit of enthusiasm and genuine appreciation that greeted Cleveland's paintings in Japan will be reciprocated when the beauty and spiritual force of these venerated Buddhist treasures are revealed within our museum's walls.

See also Introduction and Overview, CMA and Japan

Illustrations:
Each year more than three million people visit the Todai-ji (exterior view), whose main hall is the largest wooden structure in the world. Considerably diminished in size from its original grandeur, the temple houses the venerable Daibutsu (pictured in interior view).