Photo= Visitors admire a Lake-Biwa-area-Buddhist statue deposited with the Museum of Shiga Prefecture Biwako-Bunkakan (Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, Seta Minamiogaya-cho, Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture)

A special exhibition titled "The Beauty and the Spirit of Buddhism in Shiga; Being Handed Down to New Generation," sponsored by the Kyoto Shimbun Co., Ltd. and other organizations, is being held from October 8 at the Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, in Seta Minamiogaya-cho, Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture. The exhibit introduces the collected items and the role of the Museum of Shiga Prefecture Biwako-Bunkakan, located in Uchidehama, Otsu City, which is currently closed. Precious Buddhist and Shinto art deposited by Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in the Lake Biwa area are on exhibit all together.

Bunkakan opened as a museum in 1961 and was closed in 2008 due to deterioration of the building and financial difficulties of Shiga Prefecture. The collected items will be taken over by the Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, which will undergo maintenance with its renewal opening scheduled for March, 2020.

A total of 75 items are introduced over the exhibition's first session and the second which starts November 1. The gold and silver plating and delicate workmanship of "Sukashibori Kego," or openwork ritual baskets that are National Treasures and owned by Jinsho-ji Temple in Nagahama City, attract attention. The baskets made in the Heian and Kamakura Periods are exhibited in the first and second sessions, respectively. The standing statue "Taishakuten Ritsuzo," an Important Cultural Property owned by Shoho-ji Temple in Otsu City, has a gorgeous style representing the late-Heian Period.

Since Bunkakan had gathered newly-designated cultural assets to hold exhibitions, other items besides the collection, including the wooden seated statue of a male god "Danshin Zazo," a cultural property designated by Shiga Prefecture in 2015 and owned by Ionoi Jinja Shrine in Ritto City, and others, are also being shown. Although the main and front shrines of Ionoi Jinja Shrine were swept away during Typhoon No.18 in 2013, its main seated statue of a deity was found in the landslide, becoming a hot topic of conversation.

The exhibition will continue until November 23. The museum is closed on Mondays except for October 10, and it will be closed on October 11 instead. There is an admission fee.