Japanese temple to retake 14th century relic in May after prolonged legal fight
A 14th-century Buddhist statue that Korea’s Supreme Court ruled should be returned to the Japanese temple that held it before it was smuggled into Korea will be sent to Japan in May.
The Gilt-bronze Seated Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva was taken from Kannonji, a temple in Tsushima, Nagasaki prefecture, in October 2012. In December of that year, police caught the nine smugglers trafficking it and alerted Buseoksa, the Korean temple believed to be its real owner in Seosan, South Chungcheong Province.
Buseoksa sought to reclaim the artifact it considered stolen in a seven-year legal battle that culminated in 2023 with the Supreme Court upholding that Kannonji was the owner. The Korean temple had maintained that Japanese looting took place during the late Goryeo period (936-1392).
Since the Japanese temple had “peacefully and openly” been in possession of the item for at least twenty years, the court ruled that it met the conditions to be deemed the owner regardless of the statue’s origins.
Buseoksa, after initially decrying the court decision, said it would hold a 100-day ceremony through Buddha’s Birthday on May 5. The special event at Buseoksa aims to allow Buddhists and the public to view the object before its official send-off.
Experts say the statue is aesthetically distinguishable from similar statues, with its “gracious facial expression” and decorations that give off an air of stability.
Adding to its value is the piece of fabric inside the statue that carries information on when and where it was made, said Jeong Eun-woo, a professor specializing in Buddhist sculpture at Dong-A University in Busan.
“That piece of information is critical to us because we can then assess and compare relics,” Jeong said. Goryeo-era Buddhist statues generally do not have such information, making it harder for experts to evaluate them, according to the Korea Heritage Service, the state agency handling artifacts.
In October 2023, the Ven. Wonwoo, Buseoksa chief monk, called the court ruling irresponsible.
“The decision is barbaric,” Wonwoo said shortly after the ruling.
“If we follow the reasoning behind this ‘peaceful and open possession for long’ rule, every looting will be legal upon meeting the so-called ‘conditions,’” Wonwoo said of the court’s rationale that largely angered Buddhist communities.
The courts were overly soft on potential artifact theft, according to Wonwoo.
The nine Korean smugglers who took the statue out of Japan also stole a standing Buddha statue in stone, but Korean prosecutors returned it in 2015, as there was no evidence that it originated in Korea and no one in the country claimed it.
