For the past couple of years, our reporter Saya Togashi has been interested in visiting
a temple in Japan with bewitching paintings unlike anything usually found at a religious site. Dubbed the "
Ikemen Sensual Picture Scroll", the artwork is said to be amazing in many ways, and once she heard that the artwork might be removed soon, Saya wasted no time in getting herself up there to take a look at it in person. [...]
There, sheltered in the shadows cast by the eaves of the old building, were spectacular images of a fantastical world, populated mostly by handsome men.
These weren't just any random characters though – the subjects here are all important luminaries with ties to the temple, which dates back to 1300. The main players are:
Amida Nyorai, also known as the Buddha of Limitless Light;
Uesugi Kenshin (1530-1578), a powerful daimyo;
Ryokwan (1758–1831), a hermit monk;
Shuten-doji, a mythical demon;
Minamoto no Yoshitsune (1159-1189), a powerful military commander; and
Benkei (1155-1189), a Japanese warrior monk. [...]
The artist who drew these stunning images is
Ryoko Kimura, a contemporary Japanese painter who specializes in
erotic male paintings. These paintings at the temple sprang from the notion of what it would be like
if the five characters tied to the temple's history, all from different eras, were brought together to co-exist at the same time. [...]
Still, the murals have courted controversy, with some people saying they're "
not suitable for temples" and "
not good for education". The situation is further complicated by the fact that Kokujoji is designated as a cultural property of the Tsubame City Board of Education, which raises the question of who the temple belongs to, and who has a say in what happens to it. [...]
However, the head priest at Kokujoji believes there's a good reason for the murals, and that's
to attract people to the temple. Kokujoji is already known for its
"flame wars memorial service", a ceremony that puts online flaming to rest for your social media accounts, so it knows how to adapt its centuries-old heritage to the modern-day needs of worshippers.
Recently, there have been reports claiming that the murals will be removed after the public display of relics at the temple scheduled for this autumn, following requests by the Tsubame City Board of Education to return the building to its original state. So we asked the temple's head priest, Kotetsu Yamada, about the future of the art directly, to which he replied:
"Because of the humid environment around the temple, we were worried that the mural will become mouldy and worm-eaten, so we initially thought it would be displayed until the display of relics this autumn.
However, due to various reasons, the display of relics was postponed until the Year of the Horse in five years' time. There are concerns that the mural will become worn out within those five years if left as it is, though, so we're thinking of removing it by the spring, but it can still be viewed until the end of Golden Week."
So there you have it — the murals really do appear to be coming down in the near future, but according to the temple's head priest, it's not for the reasons many suspect. While it's unclear what will become of the paintings after they're removed, the concerns expressed by Yamada regarding their preservation suggest that they'll be protected in some way, and who knows – they might be used to help attract worshippers at other temples, like
a travelling exhibition spreading the word of Japan's most handsome historical and mythical men.
soranews24.com
More pics and info above; select excerpts below.
