Tamamushi Shrine
[2] Decorated with rare examples of Asuka-period paintings, it provides important clues to the architecture of the time[2][3] and has been designated a National Treasure.
[6] A fuller description is given by the monk Kenshin in his account of the 1230s or 40s of Shōtoku Taishi, prince, regent, culture hero closely associated with the early promotion of Buddhism in Japan, and founder of the temple.
[6] Fenollosa, who helped implement the 1871 Plan for the Preservation of Ancient Artifacts through nationwide survey, concluded that it was presented to the Japanese Empress in the 590s.
[7] Japanese scholar Uehara Kazu, who has written twenty-eight articles about the shrine over the course of nearly four decades and authored an extensive monograph, has conducted comparative analyses of architectural features and decorative motifs such as the tiny niches in which the Thousand Buddhas are seated.
[12][13][7] Ernest Fenollosa describes the shrine along with the statue he uncovered at Hōryū-ji known as the Yumedono Kannon as "two great monuments of sixth-century Corean Art".
[7] It is referred to by the authors of The Cambridge History of Japan as one of the "great works of Asuka art created by foreign priests and preserved as Japanese national treasures".
[2][8] Evidently it escaped the major fire in the kondō on 26 January 1949 - the building was undergoing dismantling for restoration at the time and all portable items had already been removed.
[15] (The damage to Hōryū-ji's celebrated wall paintings led to an overhaul of legislation relating to the preservation of the Cultural Properties of Japan.
[9] While the ground plan of many structures that are no longer extant is known, this miniature building is particularly important not only for its early date but also for the understanding it provides of the upper members, in particular the roof system, tiling, and brackets.
[16][17] Ornamenting both ends of the ridgepole that runs the length of the top of the roof are curved tiles known as shibi, found in surviving eighth-century architecture only on the Tōshōdai-ji kondō.
[9] The handling of narrative in the Indra scene and that of the Tiger Jātaka, where spatial progression is used to represent that of time, may be found in the paintings of Cave 254 at Mogao.
While both pigmented and incised images are known from a number of tombs of a similar date, the shrine is the only example of Buddhist painting from early seventh-century Japan.
Standing on the front doors of the miniature building are two of the Four Guardian Kings, clad in armour, with flowing draperies, holding slender halberds; their heads are ringed with aureolae or Buddhist haloes.
[2] The mudrā is a variant of the aniin (安慰印) or seppōin (説法印), the palm turned in and the thumb and index finger forming a circle (see Wheel of the Law), which according to the Sutra of the Eight Great Bodhisattvas symbolizes their thought of consoling all sentient beings.
[2][31] On the left panel of the plinth is the so-called Tiger Jātaka, an episode from the Golden Light Sutra, of a bodhisattva removing his upper garments and hanging them on a tree before casting himself from a cliff to feed a hungry tigress and her cubs.
[2] The shibi or fishtail-like ornaments at either end of the ridgepole are shaped with stylized scales or feathers, while the front doors of the shrine, on its long side, are approached by means of a small flight of steps.
[1] The base of the building and the dais at the very foot of the shrine exhibit the shape known as 格狭間 (kōzama) resembling an excised bowl that is common on later furniture, altar platforms and railings.
[7] Optical microscopy or instrumental analysis, ideally non-invasive, would be needed to identify conclusively the pigments and binder used in the original colour scheme - red, green, yellow, and white on a black ground.
