Shōsōin Audio Guide

Shōsōin: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to The Shosoin Repository

   Shōsōin: The collection was built around items associated with the imperial couple, and it grew into a treasury of Nara-period culture.

   Welcome to The Shosoin Repository, known in Japanese as 正倉院, tucked into Nara Park in the city of Nara. It stands just north-northwest of the Great Buddha Hall of Todaiji temple, and it is one of the quietest and most remarkable buildings in the whole ancient capital. Here is what you are looking at: a large raised-floor storehouse built in the azekura-zukuri style, a log-cabin-like construction whose walls are made of interlocking timbers. It was created to hold objects linked to Emperor Shomu and Empress Komyo, and it became a vault for the arts of the Tenpyo era, the golden age of eighth-century Japan. A practical note before you go closer. The treasures are no longer kept in this building in any great number, and visitors usually admire the structure from the outside, looking at it across a fence. That suits the place. The real story here is human: a widow, a lost emperor, and objects that were carefully set aside and then left in peace for about 1,300 years. Let's step into that story.

2. 02

   The Shosoin Repository: An Empress's Gift

   Shōsōin: In the eighth century, the capital at Nara was linked by culture and trade to distant lands, and the objects kept here are proof of it.

   The heart of this place is a love story of sorts, told in objects. Empress Komyo placed the belongings of her late husband, Emperor Shomu, into the care of Todaiji, and those treasures eventually came to rest in this storehouse. The collection was built around items associated with the imperial couple, and it grew into a treasury of Nara-period culture. The building itself is thought to have been completed around the year 759, in the middle of the eighth century, when Todaiji was being established and developed. What makes it extraordinary is how little it has changed. It escaped the wars and the great earthquakes that have damaged so much of Japan's early architecture, and it has come down to us in its original form after nearly 1,300 years. That survival makes it the largest storehouse building to survive from the Nara period. When you look at those heavy timber walls and the raised floor, you are looking at a working piece of eighth-century engineering that kept its secrets safe through an enormous span of time.

3. 03

   The Shosoin Repository: Treasures at the End of the Silk Road

   Shōsōin: That is why the common word became the proper name of this one building.

   Now picture what the storehouse held. The collection includes paintings, calligraphy, metalwork, lacquerware, woodwork, swords, ceramics, glassware, musical instruments and masks. There are also historical items connected with the eye-opening ceremony of the Great Buddha at Todaiji, ancient medicines, and the Shosoin documents, which are a precious record for understanding daily life and administration in Nara-period Japan. Altogether, the collection is often described as numbering about 9,000 items. Here is a surprise. More than 90 percent of the treasures were made in Japan, many of them using exotic designs. Yet the collection also includes imports from Tang China, from the Western Regions and from Persia. That mix is why the treasury is called the eastern terminus of the Silk Road. One celebrated piece is a five-string biwa, a lute-like instrument, made of rosewood and inlaid with mother-of-pearl. So this humble-looking storehouse is really a window on a cosmopolitan world. In the eighth century, the capital at Nara was linked by culture and trade to distant lands, and the objects kept here are proof of it.

4. 04

   The Shosoin Repository: A Name, a Guardian and a World Heritage Listing

   Shōsōin: The most intimate part of the story is still the first one: an empress offering her husband's possessions to a great temple.

   The word shosoin has a surprisingly down-to-earth origin. A shoso was originally a storehouse for tax rice, and in the age of the legal codes, government offices kept rice and cloth that arrived from across the provinces in such buildings. Large temples had their own storehouses for goods from their estates and for their treasured possessions, and the walled enclosure around such storehouses was called a shosoin. Each of the Seven Great Temples of Nara had one, but over the centuries all of them vanished except a single storehouse at Todaiji. That is why the common word became the proper name of this one building. Its guardianship also tells a story. Until the Edo period it was managed by Todaiji under the supervision of the imperial court. In 1875 it passed to the Home Ministry, in 1884 to the Imperial Household Ministry, and in 1908 to the Imperial Museum. Today the Shosoin Office of the Imperial Household Agency looks after both the building and its treasures. The building was designated a National Treasure in 1997, and in 1998 it was inscribed on the World Heritage List as part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara, a listing that recalls Nara's years as Japan's capital, from 710 to 784.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   As you look at the storehouse one last time, notice how plain and sturdy it is, and then remember how much delicate beauty the building has protected. The most intimate part of the story is still the first one: an empress offering her husband's possessions to a great temple. If you are curious to see the treasures themselves, a selection is shown in an annual exhibition at the Nara National Museum. It has been held every year since 1946, usually for about three weeks from mid-October to early November, and the objects on display change from year to year. Admission is ticketed with set entry times, so check the museum's official website before you plan your trip. Until then, let your eyes travel from the raised floor to the timber walls and think about the Silk Road, the Great Buddha ceremony and the long quiet centuries in between. Nara has plenty more to offer nearby, and you may find that the Great Buddha Hall just to the south of here adds a new layer to everything you have just heard.