Optical Investigation of the “Yamazaki Bridge”—The 6th Seminar Held by the Department of Art Research, Archives and Information Systems for the 2025 Fiscal Year
In 2024, the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties (TOBUNKEN) signed a memorandum of understanding for collaborative research with the Kuboso Memorial Museum of Art, Izumi, and is conducting research on artworks in the museum’s collection.
The painting “Yamazaki Bridge” depicts the extraordinary story of how the principal deity of Hōshōji Temple, the Eleven-Faced Kannon Bodhisattva, transformed into an old man and built the bridge, located between present-day Ōyamazaki Town, Otokuni District, and Yawata City, where the Katsura River, Uji River, and Kizu River converge to form the Yodo River in Kyoto Prefecture. The work blends the dramatic miraculous tale of the bridge’s construction with depictions of the common people involved in its construction against the landscapes of Mt. Tennōzan and Mt. Otokoyama, and Hōshōji Temple.
This painting has garnered attention not only in art history study, but also in history and Japanese literature. Although the subtle details and auspicious inscriptions on the painting have become difficult to read due to aging, we have conducted two optical surveys to maximize the information available on the painting. At this seminar, Ms. EMURA Tomoko gave a presentation titled “Optical Survey of the Yamazaki Bridge Painting,” and Mr. KAWADA Masayuki, director of the Kuboso Memorial Museum of Art, Izumi, spoke as a commentator about the research history and issues of the Yamazaki Bridge Painting.
A leaflet on the Yamazaki Bridge Painting, published in March 2025, will soon be made available in the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties repository. Furthermore, we plan to create digital content and publish it online to enable more researchers to view the high-resolution images. We hope that the results of this collaborative research will be widely utilized and deepen understanding of the work.