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On Saturday we headed to the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art to catch the special exhibition of the National Treasures of Miidera Temple in its last weekend here (it travels to Tokyo in February and Fukuoka in April). As evidenced by the exterior, the museum building dates from the 1930s. The main foyer was quite beautiful, with stained glass and large arches of marble (if my memory serves me correctly) surrounding an open area that contained a huge chandelier. The exhibition spaces were pretty standard, and matched the era of the building. The exhibition itself contained about 250 objects, many of which are categorized as National Treasures. The exibition was organized to commemorate the 1,150th year of the return of Enchin (a head priest of Miidera) from his journey to China. Among the many impressive objects were the Heian Period Ki Fudo hanging scroll, the Kamakura Period Standing Ki Fudo wood sculpture, and Joe's favorite, the Heian Seated Shinra Myojin sculpture. I was also left with strong impressions of a huge embroidery of the 33 Kannon Pilgrimage sites of Western Japan, the Kano School paintings, and the Diamond and Womb World Mandalas. Many of the objects exhibited are rarely brought out for the public, so it was a treat to see them all exhibited in one place, even if the crowd was thick. Sorry to say that images of the objects are hard to find online, so you'll just have to find a copy of the catalog at your local library if you really want to see more.
The weather was beautiful on Saturday, and we enjoyed strolling around Tennoji Park, where the museum is located, enjoying the many flower gardens before having Indian food for dinner and heading to Kobe for Luminaire.
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