A Transnational Analysis of an Ancient Buddhist Site: Japanese art critic Yanagi Sōetsu’s
reading of Sekibutsuji (1919)
Penny Bailey, PhD (The University of Queensland)

Research Project Outline
In 1919, the Japanese art critic Yanagi Muneyoshi (also known as Yanagi Sōetsu) became thefirst person in the modern era to critically appraise Korea’s famous Buddhist cave temple siteSŏkkuram as a work of art, in his substantive landmark essay “Sekibutsuji no chōkoku nitsuite” (The Sculptures of Sŏkpulsa [Sŏkkuram] Temple). Sŏkkuram is an eighth-century
sacred Buddhist site, heritage listed by UNESCO since 1994. It is located on the outskirts ofKyŏngju, the ancient capital of Korea’s Silla Kingdom during the Unified Silla period (668 to935).
Yanagi’s essay was published in Tokyo in the June 1, 1919 issue of the art journal Geijutsu.
Despite the positive reception of the essay among his peers and the influence it wieldedamong later art historians and researchers, to date, it has received very little scholarlyattention. One exception is the article “Oriental Sublime: Sŏkkuram in the Imperial JapaneseLandscape” (2014) by the Korean scholar Hwang Jongyon. This article, however, focuses on
Yanagi’s work in terms of Japan’s colonisation of Korea, rather than on a scholarly study ofthe essay’s construction and its impressive transcultural interpretation.
Based on my English translation of the work, this project constitutes the first comprehensive
investigation into Yanagi’s construction of the essay, and how it was received among hiscontemporaries and later art historians. It will make significant contributions to newknowledge in the field of mingei studies, and more broadly, to Japanese art history.
Importantly, Yanagi’s appraisal of Sekibutsuji is particularly significant because it predates hisestablishment of the Mingei Movement in the 1920s with the potters Hamada Shōji (1894–1978), Kawai Kanjirō (1890–1966), Tomimoto Kenkichi (1886–1963) and Bernard Leach(1887–1979), for which he is best known. In his role as the guiding theoretician of themovement, he built on these early visual interpretations of Korean culture to complete avast canon of writings.
Yanagi’s text is ground-breaking in that it was the first of its kind to appraise the Buddhist
cave temple as a work of art, drawing from his extensive knowledge of art historicalmethods, Buddhist theology, and Christian mysticism. Broadly speaking, this research project
investigates the art historical methodologies employed by Yanagi to construct his essay, thecircumstances that led him to write it, and the ways it impacted on his future career as theleader of the Japan Folk Craft Movement.
Methodologically, the research project adopts an interdisciplinary framework encompassing
Japanese studies, art historical models, and studies of Japan-Korea relations in Korea’s
colonial era (1910–1945). In order to establish a solid critical foundation on which to basethe research, the core approach of the project is a combination of close textual scrutiny of“Sekibutsuji no chōkoku ni tsuite” and supporting historical and contemporarydocumentation. The research is also supported by visual analyses of the cave temple’sstatuary.

Research Process and Findings
Most of my research was conducted at the National Diet Library, where I found a vast arrayof resources supporting my project, including an invaluable book published in 2022
commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the publication of Yanagi’s book Chōsen tosono geijutsu (Korea and Its Arts), a compendium of ten of Yanagi’s essays on Korea whichincludes Yanagi’s Sŏkkuram essay. I also found contemporaneous accounts of Korean art by
the scholar Sekino Tadashi, who extensively researched art and architecture in Korea, journal
articles (e.g. The Chōsen and Manshū), and historical newspaper articles (e.g. Tōkyō
Nichinichi Shinbun, present day Mainichi Shinbun) detailing aspects of Sŏkkuram.
Additional materials were obtained at the Japan Folk Arts Museum and the Research andInformation Centre at the Tokyo National Museum. Additionally, thanks to the support ofNF-JLEP, I was also able to access a very important document of Yanagi’s related to theSŏkkuram essay in the collection of Tōyō University’s library. Entitled Chōsen no bijutsu(Korean Art), this handmade wasōbon work by Yanagi published in 1922 (three years afterthe Sŏkkuram essay) contains information on one of the statues (Manjushri) at Sŏkkuram,including a photograph and the statue’s iconographical elements. There are only threecopies of this valuable work in libraries across Japan.
Completed in 775, Sŏkkuram is thought to have been commissioned by the prime minister
Kim Taesŏng (700–774), under the reign of King Kyŏngdŏk (742–765). There are very few
historical documents charting the grotto’s history, and those that do exist were written
centuries after its completion. Sŏkkuram differs from other Buddhist grottoes in Asia in that
it is not carved into a mountainside (in the style of the Ajanta Caves in India and theLongmen and Yungang Grottoes in China, for example), but constructed from granite slabs
hewn from the mountain and arranged according to a meticulous mathematical scheme. It isalso the only cave temple in the world that employs a symmetrical layout with sculpted
granite figures systematically arranged according to the hierarchy of the Buddhist pantheon.
Yanagi analysed each statue with meticulous care, and theorised that the cave temple was
the starting point for a national Korean preference for artworks preferencing linearcharacteristics. His observations were influential for the remainder of the colonial period(1910–1945), and beyond, precipitating a lot of other Sŏkkuram studies. By comparing
Yanagi’s essay with contemporary accounts, I was able to crossmatch each of the 38 statues
at Sŏkkuram with Yanagi’s own detailed accounts. His visit to Sŏkkuram inspired him toembark on an intensive investigation into Buddhism. After returning to Japan, he publishedhis first collection of essays, Shūkyō to sono shinri 宗教とその心理 (Religion and Its Truth), inFebruary 1919, two months prior to his appointment as Professor of Religion at Tōyō
University (Tokyo), and four months prior to the publication of his Sŏkkuram essay.

Presentation of Research Results

The research findings will be disseminated through attendance at conferences, participationin research seminars, and a peer-reviewed journal article.
After completing this research, my goal is to continue publishing in the field of mingei
studies. The research conducted on this project will thus also have a cumulative benefit toplanned future projects.

Use of Yanagi Sōetsu’s Sŏkkuram Text in Teaching and Cultural Education
In terms of language teaching practice, Yanagi’s text constitutes a rich example of earlytwentieth century writing which can be excerpted for use by advanced (level 3) language
learners. It includes a variety of prewar kanji (kyūjitai), structures and key grammaticalfeatures that align with advanced textbook content. The text may also be useful in advanced
translation classes.
In level 1 classes, the text can serve in cultural discussions as an important example of aJapanese national who attempted to form friendly relations with Koreans in the colonial
period through the intercultural relevance of art.
Further, the text’s analysis of the Buddhist cave temple statuary exhibits strong connections
with important visual cultures in Nara and Kyoto that inform our understanding of ancienthistorical sites and the ways that they forge links to the present. These connections can beexplored in Japanese cultural courses.

I am very grateful to the NF-JLEP Association for this generous grant and for the invaluable
opportunity to further my research in this field. I believe the materials I collected on thisresearch trip will be of great assistance in my research for years to come.

References
Han, Yŏngdae/Kan Eidai 韓永大. Yanagi Muneyoshi to Chōsen: Jiyū to geijutsu e no kenshin
柳宗悦と朝鮮：自由と芸術への献身 (Yanagi Muneyoshi and Korea: Devotion toFreedom and the Arts). Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, 2008.
Hwang, Jongyon. “Oriental Sublime: Sŏkkuram in the Imperial Japanese Landscape.” Acta
Koreana, Vol. 17, No. 1 (2014): 29–60.
Katayama, Mabi 片山まび and Sugiyama Takashi 杉山亨司 (eds.). Yanagi Muneyoshi nokokoro no me: Nihon Mingeikan shozō Chōsen kanren shiryō o megutte: Chōsen to sono

geijutsu kankō hyaku shūnen kinen 柳宗悦の心と眼：日本民藝館所蔵朝鮮観連資料をめぐって：『朝鮮とその藝術』刊行周年記念 (The Heart and Eyes of Yanagi
Muneyoshi: Korean Works in the Japan Folk Arts Museum: A Commemoration of theHundredth Anniversary of the Publication of Korea and Its Arts). Tokyo: Aiwādo, 2022.
Sekino, Tadashi 関野貞. Chōsen geijutsu no kenkyū 朝鮮芸術之研究 (A Study of KoreanArt). Keijō (Seoul): Chōsen Sōtokufu Takushibu Kenchikusho, 1910.
Yanagi, Sōetsu 柳宗悦. Chōsen no bijutsu 朝鮮の美術 (Korean Art). Tokyo: private printing,1922.
______. “Sekibutsuji no chōkoku ni tsuite” 石仏寺の彫刻に就いて (The Sculptures ofSŏkpulsa [Sŏkkuram] Grotto) [1919]. Geijutsu, Vol. 5, No. 2 (1919): 91–121.

Figure 1：Nihon-Mingeikan, Komaba, Tokyo