Special Exhibition: Kobo Daishi Kukai — Treasures of Koyasan and the Spread of the Faith

The exhibition is dedicated to Kukai, the monk known as Kobo Daishi and the founder of Shingon, one of the schools of Buddhism in Japan. It is held at the Kyushu National Museum at Dazaifu in Fukuoka Prefecture, and marks 150 years of the newspaper Nishinippon Shimbun.

Kukai, who lived from 774 to 835, studied the esoteric teaching at Chang'an, the capital of Tang China. At the centre of that teaching stands Dainichi Nyorai, the buddha in whom the truth of the universe is embodied. Kukai carried it back with him and established it in Japan as the Shingon school.

The exhibition draws on two bodies of material. The first is the treasure of Koyasan, the mountain he opened as a place of training in esoteric practice. The second is held by temples across the west of the country that keep some tie to him, and it answers to the second half of the title: how far the devotion to him reached.

Part of the display will be changed during the run. Kongobuji, the head temple of Koyasan Shingon, and Dazaifu Tenmangu are both named as giving particular help.

Admission, and the date on which tickets go on sale, are to be announced by the museum.