March – May 2025: “Inheritance of Prayer: Restoration of the Gohyaku Rakan” Exhibition at Nakatsu City History Museum

Starting March 15, 2025, the exhibition “Inheritance of Prayer: Restoration of the Gohyaku Rakan,” originally held in 2021 and 2022, was presented at the Nakatsu City History Museum in Oita Prefecture. This exhibition was organized as a concurrent feature of the special exhibition “Where Arhats Dwell” (commemorating the 10th anniversary of the designation of the Rakan-ji stone Buddhas as Important Cultural Properties).

The Gohyaku Rakan (Five Hundred Arhats) statues of Tenonzan Gohyaku Rakanji Temple in Tokyo were carved by the Edo-period Buddhist sculptor Shoun Genkei. It is said that during his ascetic journey, Shoun Genkei visited the renowned Rakan-ji Temple in Yabakei, Buzen Province (present-day Nakatsu City, Oita Prefecture). He was deeply moved by the stone Buddhas he encountered there, an experience that reportedly inspired him to carve the Gohyaku Rakan statues.

For the special exhibition “Where Arhats Dwell,” three of these Rakan statues were loaned from Tenonzan Gohyaku Rakanji Temple. Seeing Shoun Genkei’s statues displayed in the very land that inspired him more than 300 years ago was a profoundly moving experience. It felt as though this realization was guided by a destined connection woven through history.