Recently, I visited the exhibition of The Hidden Buddha of Rakujaji Temple, Shiga, which has been run at Tokyo National Museum till today. I knew next to nothing about the temple and Buddhism statues. In fact, they are not familiar to even those who are interested in Japanese history because of less description in school textbook. The temple was established by Saicho, the founder of the Tendai sect in the Heian period. Thanks to the location of temple, it could often keep away from political dispute at Kyoto and some twenty statues were preserved as they were for centuries. One of the statues, Seated Jizo Bosatsu, is confirmed its dedication as 1187. A memo left inside the Bosatsu which expresses details of how and why it was made.
1187 AD was the year, Minamotono, Yoshitsune escaped to the Northeast to have a protection from Fujiwaras. Today, we know that the age of noble class had been transferred to the age of Bushi. But from viewpoint of common people at the age, the change of the society seemed to the end of their world.
