After fighting over this Buddhist statue, Japan temple helps Korean counterpart in making replicas with 3D data

TOKYO, July 7 — South Korea and Japan’s ties have a complicated history but a dispute over a 14th-century Buddhist statue only added to the pre-existing friction.

According to the Korea Herald, the Kannon Temple in Japan handed over 3D data of the Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva statue to Buseoksa Temple after previously fighting a legal battle to reclaim the statue.

Thieves had stolen the statue from Kannon Temple on Japan’s Tsushima Island in 2012 and taken it to South Korea.

However, South Korean authorities had arrested the thieves and confiscated the statue, only for the local Buseoksa Temple to file a lawsuit claiming the statue had previously been stolen by Japanese pirates in years past.

In 2023, South Korea’s Supreme Court ruled in favour of Kannon Temple meaning the statue must be returned to them, which happened on May 12 this year.

Kannon Temple’s chief priest Setsuryo Tanaka had visited the temple yesterday and handed over a USB drive with the 3D scan data, said Buseoksa chief monk Wonwoo.

Buseoksa had previously requested a scan be made while the statue was still in South Korea, only to be rebuffed by Japan.

“After the statue was returned to Japan, it stayed at the Kannonji Temple for a day before being moved to a museum. Feeling a sense of loss, the temple began to understand how deeply Koreans must have felt when the statue was taken from them. Moved by this empathy, they decided to share the 3D data with us," Wonwoo said in remarks to Korea Herald.

What next? Buseoksa plans to create three copies of the statue, with one to be covered in gold leaf and kept in the temple while two more will be placed on display elsewhere.

Weighing 38.6 kilograms, the Seated Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva is made of bronze and measures 50.5 centimetres in height.