buddhist statues at the ccma

This Sunday, a friend and I went to the Chiba City Museum of Art to see their latest exhibit, Butsuzou Hantou (something like 'Buddhist Statues from the Peninsula'). I think I've been to every new exhibit at the CCMA since I got here last August, and as usual it did not disappoint!

I should probably preface this by saying that I know next to nothing about Buddhism, but it was still really cool! The exhibit consisted of 150 statues selected from temples around the Boso Peninsula (aka all of Chiba Prefecture), including some dating from the Heian period (795-1185 CE). Apparently a lot of the statues have also never been displayed in public before, either.

What struck me the most about the statues was how almost all of them were made of wood! From the pictures I had seen on the posters I thought they were made of stone or metal, but evidently this was not the case. Considering the fact that some of these statues were hundreds of years old, I was really impressed at how well-preserved they were (maybe the never-having-been-displayed thing had something to do with this). Of course, there were many statues where the paint had faded or there were chunks missing here and there, but that was interesting in itself because you could see how they connected different pieces of wood to make the sculptures. I wonder if there are still many people aroundwho know how to make this kind of statue (and if not, it's a shame).

I also enjoyed seeing what was on the bodhisattvas' heads, which ranged from nothing to zodiac animals to more heads! Again, if I knew more about Buddhism I would probably have gotten much more meaning out of it, but it was pretty cool to see different interpretations of things like (what a little research tells me were) the guardians of the zodiac, as there were several sets of statues of them.

The exhibit covered two floors and wasn't just statues - there were also scrolls and paintings, a giant metal Buddha head (whether the rest of it was ever made is apparently unclear), and wooden carvings, among others. All in all, a very cool exhibit - which is only open for one more week!

We weren't allowed to take photographs of the exhibit itself, but I will just end this post here with this: 

(Posted with permission, don't worry)

'Butsuzou Hantou'
Chiba City Museum of Art
3-10-8 Chuo, Chuo-ku, Chiba 260-8733
Admission: 1000 yen for adults, 700 for college students, free for high-schoolers and under
Hours: Monday - Thursday, 10:00 - 18:00; Friday and Saturday 10:00 - 20:00
Access: 15-minute walk from JR Chiba Station, 10-minute walk from Keisei Chiba Chuo Station, 5-minute walk from Chiba Urban Monorail Yoshikawa Koen Station
Website: http://www.ccma-net.jp/index.html