"Soga Zodiac Night Playing Scene" Exhibition

Byodoin Temple Museum Hoshokan

This event has ended.

The people of the Heian period enabled a story to be dynamic and unique by the use of illustration. At the Tokyo University of the Arts Cultural Preservation Nihonga Research Center, with the representative E-maki (picture book) "Wildlife Caricature" at Kyoto's Takayama Temple as the motif, they have newly presented contemporary society, employing typical Nihonga techniques alongside digital technology. The originals had ink drawn onto a white sheet, but these works have, by using the opposite, white onto a black backing, created scenes of autumnal nighttime frolicking more vivid than could have been imagined. With this concept, Byodoin Temple will present the epic work, "Soga Zodiac Night Playing Scene", where the creatures of the Chinese Zodiac at night fraternize with the gods. This work from now on is planned to be shown domestically and abroad as part of a large-scale event involving curtains and screens, and as we welcome the millennial anniversary of "The Tale of Genji", the original paintings are to be dedicated to Uji Byodoin.