TOTTORI — A temple known as Japan’s “most dangerous” national treasure has made it onto a postage stamp as part of the fourth installment of Japan Post Co.’s national treasure postage stamp series.
Mitokusan Sanbutsuji temple’s Nageiredo hall in the Tottori Prefecture town of Misasa is precariously built into the side of a cliff. A representative from the temple said he was happy about the hall being selected for the postage stamp, which went on sale on May 29.
“Through the stamp, people from across the country will become more familiar with Nageiredo hall,” he said. “Hopefully when the novel coronavirus crisis calms down, they will visit.”
The past three series of national treasure postage stamps were issued between the late 1960s and the late 1980s, appearing about once every 10 years. They featured a total of 53 items, including the Ashura statue at Kohfuku-ji temple in Nara Prefecture in western Japan, the “Scrolls of Frolicking Animals and Humans” at Kozan-ji temple in Kyoto Prefecture, also in western Japan, and the gold seal at Fukuoka City Museum in southwestern Japan.
The national treasures featured in the latest installment of the series comprise 10 archaeological artifacts, including a clay figure and a bronze mirror, and 10 architectural sites including Nageiredo hall, Hokuendo hall of Kohfuku-ji temple in Nara Prefecture, and Konjikido hall of Chuson-ji temple in Iwate Prefecture in northeastern Japan. Japan Post is set to issue another collection in fiscal 2021 at the earliest.
The stamps come in sheets of 10 artifacts or sites each and are available at post offices nationwide. The 63-yen archaeological artifact stamps are sold as 630-yen sheets, while the 84-yen architectural site stamps are sold as 840-yen sheets.
(Japanese original by Yasuyoshi Mochizuki, Tottori Bureau)