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The appeal of Buddhist culture spanning Asia

Founded as a seminary for Higashi Hongan-ji Temple in 1665, Otani University has a wealth of materials that it now exhibits in an on-campus museum. Exhibits mainly deal with the Shinshu sect of Buddhism and with Buddhist cultural assets, but it also displays materials from many fields such as philosophy, literature and other subjects, notably with extensive materials covering Central to East Asia. The museum’s collection is especially rich in books in classical Chinese and Japanese and other ancient documents used for research into Oriental studies and Japanese history. There are ten Important Cultural Properties such as the Koya-zappitsu-shu by Kobo Daishi (Kukai), the diary Shunki of Sukefusa Fujiwara (illuminating the daily lives of Heian nobles) and the Senjaku Hongan Nenbutsu Shu by Genku (also called Honen), which was written at the request of the imperial advisor Kanezane Kujo.
Regular exhibitions, mainly drawing from pieces in the museum collection, are held four times a year. Also, in autumn, there is a special exhibition that introduces material preserved in various areas of Japan together with material from the museum’s collection.