Pseudo Buddhist Sutra Container

At first glance, this cast bronze sutra container looks like a Buddhist ritual object in which sutras are buried to preserve them for future times. Many examples have been found in excavations from the Heian period and later times. However, with its wide foot made of a stylized lotus flower, its lid knob in the shape of a mini-pagoda, and its strangely irregular and multicolored patina, this item does not match any work from those respected periods.

Also, the half-relief figure on the front seems to look like what we expect to be a Medicine Buddha holding a bowl in front of him with both hands, but why then is it dressed like a Bodhisattva in elongated robes, decorated with an ornamental topknot, and flying on a ruyi-shaped cloud? And why is there what appears to be a bon syllable from the Sanskrit alphabet, which is often used in esoteric Buddhism, but this particular example shown here does not actually exist in the real alphabet?

The answer is: Because this vessel was not created in a Buddhist context for a Buddhist purpose. Its function was to completely deceive the eyes in order to hide within it sacred Christian texts after the prohibition and persecution of Christianity in Japan in the 1600s.

The Tokugawa shoguns eradicated Christianity in Japan through murder, persecution, and edicts. In 1638, an estimated 37,000 people (mostly Christians) were massacred after the Christian-led Shimabara Rebellion. Within 50 years, the crackdown by the shoguns had reduced the number of Christians to almost zero. By this time, after the Shimabara Rebellion, the remaining Christians had been forced to publicly renounce their faith. Many continued to practice Christianity in secret, becoming known in modern times as "hidden Christians" (kakure kirishitan 隠れキリシタン). These secret believers often hid Christian iconography in closed pseudo-Buddhist or pseudo-Shintoist shrines, lanterns, or in conspicuous parts of buildings. The best known are examples of Mary disguised as a Bodhisattva.

This vessel exemplifies a unique chapter in Japanese history and is a rare item sought by specialists.

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