Japan provides 3D data of returned Bodhisattva statue to Buseoksa
Just two months after a 14th-century Korean Buddhist statue, previously stolen from a Japanese temple and brought to Korea, was returned to Japan in May, a temple on Tsushima Island has sent 3D data on the statue to Buseoksa Temple in Korea.
The Ven. Wonwoo, the chief monk of Buseoksa, confirmed to The Korea Herald that Setsuryo Tanaka, the chief priest of Kannon Temple in Japan's Tsushima, Nagasaki prefecture, visited the Korean temple with a USB containing the 3D scan data.
"He visited the temple on Sunday at around 2 p.m. and gave us the USB. We had repeatedly requested permission for a 3D scan to be conducted on the statue while the statue was in Korea, but Japan had refused," Ven. Wonwoo said via phone.
"After the statue was returned to Japan, it stayed at the Kannonji Temple for a day before being moved to a museum. Feeling a sense of loss, the temple began to understand how deeply Koreans must have felt when the statue was taken from them. Moved by this empathy, they decided to share the 3D data with us," he explained further.
With the 3D data, Buseoksa plans to create three copies of the original statue. One replica will be covered in gold leaf and enshrined at the temple, while the other two will be housed or displayed at cultural institutions.
The 50.5-centimeter-tall gilt-bronze Seated Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, which weighs around 38.6 kilograms, was stolen from Kannonji, a temple in Tsushima, Nagasaki prefecture, Japan, in October 2012. In December of that year, Korean police caught nine individuals involved in smuggling the statue and notified Buseoksa, the Korean temple believed to be its original owner, in Seosan, South Chungcheong Province.
Buseoksa went through a seven-year legal battle to reclaim what it considered a stolen artifact, arguing that Japan had looted it during the late Goryeo Kingdom (918–1392). However, in 2023, the Supreme Court of Korea ruled that Kannonji Temple was the owner.
The statue was returned to Japan on May 12.
It is currently being kept at a museum in Tsushima City due to security concerns.
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