The MOA Museum of Art in Atami, Shizuoka, will open 'Buddhist Sculptures of Izu Part 1' on October 23, running to January 3, 2027. The exhibition is the first in a planned series examining the Buddhist sculpture of the Izu region, which has drawn growing scholarly attention in recent years.

From the early Heian period, the Izu area saw active temple building and image carving centred on Kawazu's Nanzenji, producing a distinguished body of Buddhist sculpture. Local tradition holds that the temple's buildings and statues were once buried by a mountain landslide and later excavated; the surviving damaged fragments suggest that as many as fifty images were once enshrined there. Recent research is gradually clarifying the scattered images and their historical context.

The core of the show is the group of sculptures transmitted by Nanzenji, designated Important Cultural Properties of Japan in 2024. Twelve of the 26 designated works will be displayed, led by the principal image, a seated Yakushi Nyorai dating from the 9th to 10th century. The selection offers a rare chance to see a regional Buddhist image tradition presented as a coherent body rather than as isolated survivors.

The Izu series reflects a broader curatorial shift in Japan toward regional sculpture traditions that long stood outside the canonical centres of Nara and Kyoto. By making these works the subject of sustained exhibition research, the museum is betting that the next discoveries in Japanese art history lie in the provinces.