Focus on this artwork and analyze the Replica and current version.
The mandala is held at the Nara National Museum, but remains the property of the Chūgū-ji temple in Nara Prefecture. The extant version was created in the Edo period by combining remnants of the original embroidery with a replica made in the late 13th century.Its association with the temple and its reconstruction are due to the work of the Buddhist nun Shinnyo, who recovered the original mandala from its storage at Hōryū-ji in 1273. According to the narratives of Shinnyo's life, she had a dream in which she learned that the mandala contained the death date of the Princess Anahobe no Hashihito (穴穂部間人皇女, Anahobe no Hashihito no Himemiko), consort of Emperor Jomei and mother of Shōtoku (Shinnyo was researching Hashihito, the patroness of Chūgū-ji, as part of her work to restore the temple). The mandala was locked away at Hōryū-ji, but a break-in at the Hōryū-ji treasury allowed Shinnyo to access their stores under the pretext of checking for damages. There, she found the mandala, severely damaged, and was given permission to remove it to Chūgū-ji. She subsequently took it on a fund-raising tour to Kyoto, and received enough donations to fund the creation of a replica.Both the replica and the original were damaged by fires at Chūgū-ji in the early fourteenth century, but the damaged pieces were preserved and in the nineteenth century were combined to create the current version. The colour fastness of the original material was superior to that of the later replica; in the extant version of the artwork, the brighter sections are all derived from the original.
Buddhist nun embroidery Nara Nara Prefecture Edo period Shinnyo Nara National Museum mandala Hōryū-ji Chūgū-ji Emperor Jomei