Link Between Hindu Gods and Japan

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A Link Between Hindu Gods and Japan

Source: Japan Times Newspaper

TOKYO, JAPAN, April 10, 2002: An exhibition called "Gods Derived

>From India to Japan" is showing at the Okura Shukokan Museum of Fine

Arts until May 26. The story behind the showing is a fascinating

one. It all started 51 years ago when Toshio Yamanouchi's job took

him to India as general manager for an iron importer company. His

passion for religious art took him all across the country and in

twenty-five years he built up his collection. In northern Uttar

Pradesh, he discovered a miniature painting of "Govardhana Krishna."

In Madhya Pradesh, he purchased a 18th century three-headed Ganesha

made of ivory. A sandalwood Saraswati was found in the NW state of

Rajasthan. Yamanouchi's entire collection, which he has donated to

the Okura Shukokan Museum of Fine Arts, consists of 350 statues,

sculptures, reliefs and paintings. Seventy of these pieces are part

of the present exhibition. Indian law would now prohibit the export

of any historical object more than 100 years old. This law was

passed in the early 70's. However, by this time, the collection had

already been brought back to Japan. Diagnosed with terminal cancer

at the age of 73, Yamanouchi chose to utilize what he thought might

be his final years to write three books about how India and Japan

are bound by their roots in Hinduism and Buddhism. The article

says, "Yamanouchi identifies Benzaiten, the Japanese goddess of good

fortune, with Saraswati; Seiten of the Jogan Period with Ganesha;

and Enma, the Japanese lord of hell, with his Indian counterpart

Yama." Interestingly, Yamanouchi was fascinated with the Hindu gods

that he saw during weekly visits to Buddhist temples when he was a

young boy. He recalls, "My parents were very religious. I saw many

Buddhas at the temples, but I also noticed many Indian Gods

protecting the central Buddha figure."