The National Treasure system, instituted in Japan in the late nineteenth century, has had a strong influence in the establishment of the canon of Japanese art history. A work or a monument may be designated as a National Treasure or Important Cultural Property after a team of specialists presents a detailed study evaluating its historical and artistic importance. In most cases, the conclusions of these specialists formed the basis for the standard account in Japanese art history. The subject of Sherry Fowler’ book Murōji: Rearranging Art and History at a Japanese Buddhist Temple is a famous Buddhist temple established in the early ninth century in a beautiful mountain setting. Some of its buildings and Buddhist icons were designated as National Treasures in the early twentieth century, and later others were named Important Cultural Properties. They are thus included in most Japanese art history books and are usually discussed according to an already established discourse. Fowler, however, provides an innovative view of the history of the temple and its monuments. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach, she determines that the current roles and meanings of some of the icons and buildings have, in fact, changed over time. Her thorough analysis of an impressive number of primary sources demonstrates how power struggles between different schools of Buddhism led to the shifting identities of the icons and the functions of the buildings, and ultimately to a rewriting of the temple’s history. In the process, she discusses the complex and dynamic world of Japanese religious beliefs and practices.

The first chapter explains the sacredness of the site. Before the temple was established, Mt. Murō was a place for the training of mountain ascetics and the performance of long-life and rainmaking ceremonies. The mountain was believed to be inhabited by the Dragon King, a spirit that protected the temple and the country. This spirit is still supposed to roam the mountains, and the priests of Ryūketsu (Dragon Cave) Shrine, located to the east of the Buddhist temple, care for a cave thought to be the opening to the dragon’s dwelling. In conjunction with the temple, the shrine presently celebrates the annual autumn festival. In addition, there is also evidence of an active relic cult in Murōji. Fowler shows that relics believed to have been buried by Kūkai (774–835), the Shingon Buddhist master, on Mt. Murō were actually part of the allure of Murōji, as attested by the numerous records that mention them. Further evidence of this now long-forgotten relic cult is provided by the reliquaries found in the temple, which date to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Particularly interesting are the 35,000 or so momitō (small wooden stūpas containing a grain of rice) found in the Maitreya Hall. The author argues that beliefs associated with the fertility of the land are behind this Buddhist practice.

The politics of control of Murōji are discussed in the second chapter. At present the temple is affiliated with the Shingon school of Buddhism, and a number of primary sources show the construction of Shingon identity for the temple. Fowler thus worked to recreate an unbiased history of the sectarian affiliations of the temple. By examining the lives of monks who played important roles in the early history of Murōji, she concludes that in the ninth and tenth centuries the Hossō (represented by the Kōfukuji temple located in Nara prefecture) and Tendai schools were prevalent at the site. In fact, Murōji was a sub-temple of Kōfukuji. Only in the fourteenth century did Shingon Buddhism appear in Murōji, but in strong competition with Hōsso-Kōfukuji. After a long dispute between these two factions over control of the temple, among many other events, a donation by Kenshōin, the mother of the fifth shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1646–1709) led to its present Shingon affiliation. Some readers might find this chapter filled with an excessive number of similarly titled primary sources, but the author has painstakingly pieced together the available information to reconstruct the history of religious affiliations in Murōji, as they are crucial to understanding the buildings and their icons. Because Murōji is also known as Nyonin Kōya (Mt. Kōya for Women), this chapter includes a discussion of gender issues in Buddhism. Fowler explains the general place of women in Buddhism, and also in relation to specific mountain-temples (particularly Mt. Kōya) and temples in Japan that were off-limits to women until the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Records of women’s donations and visits to Murōji reveal the active role of women at the site. In addition, Fowler presents another facet of religious practice at Murōji. On the wall of the Maitreya Hall hang a pair of cloth breasts, reminders that women came to the temple to pray for abundant breast milk and left these votive offerings.

Chapters 3, 4, and 5 focus on the buildings and icons they house with detailed descriptions of the current building structures as well as the history of the construction and reconstruction, naming and renaming of these structures. Information is provided relevant to the history of the architecture, and more importantly, the renaming of the structures vis-à-vis the shifting power at Murōji, as this determined the adaptation and transformation of existing sacred spaces to new ritual needs. While documents and diagrams offer information about the buildings, such information regarding the icons is scarce; as a result, the author relies on stylistic analysis and iconographical study, two of the traditional methods of art history. In doing so, she introduces a number of interesting examples of Buddhist art from Japan, China, and Korea for comparison.

In chapter 3, “The Building and Rebuilding of Murōji,” Fowler discusses the recent reconstruction of the temple’s pagoda, which was damaged by a typhoon in 1998. The two-year reconstruction allowed her the opportunity to study the pagoda’s structure in more detail; thus she includes a detailed description of materials and building techniques and a discussion of the issue of preservation of historical monuments in Japan. In addition, she was able to see the Five Wisdom Buddhas (dated to the seventeenth or eighteenth century) that as “secret images” had never been seen before. In Japanese Buddhism, “secret images” are icons kept in closed shrines that are opened only on determined dates, and some are never displayed. Fowler suggests that these Five Wisdom Buddhas represent the ones in the Diamond Mandala, and that they were placed in the pagoda in the late seventeenth century during the Shingon transformation of the temple. She also compares the fund-raising campaign for this reconstruction with those held by the temple in the sixteenth century, revealing interesting aspects of Buddhist practice then and now. This chapter also includes discussions of architectural features, icons, and paintings of the Maitreya Hall, the Main Hall, and the Founder’s Hall in the Okunoin.

The Golden Hall and its icons are the subjects of chapters 4 and 5. The five icons on the main altar (left to right as seen by the viewer)—Jizō, Yakushi, Shaka, Monju, and Eleven-Headed Kannon—present not only an unusual iconographical group but a diverse mix of styles and scales that do not correspond to the symmetrical arrangement seen in orthodox Buddhist icon groups. Visual analysis and textual evidence led Fowler to the conclusion that the Golden Hall was originally dedicated to Yakushi, the Healing Buddha. The earliest altar had three icons sharing a distinctive style, probably the work of a local workshop. The one today called Shaka, originally identified as Yakushi, was flanked by the Eleven-Headed Kannon and a Jizō image, found in a nearby village. As for the present five images, Fowler compellingly demonstrates that these five Buddhist images are the manifestations of the kami (indigenous deities) of the Kasuga shrine. This shrine was part of the Kōfukuji-Kasuga temple-shrine complex, and therefore closely related to Murōji, a sub-temple of Kōfukuji as noted above. The present pentad arrangement corresponds to the last efforts of the Kōfukuji faction to control Murōji. Most important, it is an example of the Japanese Buddhist beliefs known as honji suijaku, Buddhist deities worshiped as manifestations of kami.

Murōji: Rearranging Art and History at a Japanese Buddhist Temple is clearly written, well organized, and illustrated with quality color and black-and-white photographs. It contains an appendix, notes, glossary of Japanese and Chinese characters, a bibliography, and an index. In her conclusion, Fowler states: “Plurality of practice is central to this book.” She is referring to the plurality of the religious practices at Murōji, but this could also be applied to the various approaches Fowler used for this research. This book is a welcomed addition to the growing number of monographs on the arts of Japan and will be of interest to scholars and students in the fields of art history, general history, and religious and cultural studies.