A Special Exhibition About Princess Matsu Was Held During The New Year Celebration

During the first week after New Year, a special exhibition about "Samurai Princess Matsu" was held at Shinshoin Temple in Hachioji City, Tokyo. I kept introducing about Princess Matsu on my website since last April. As I wrote in my previous post on April 10th and April 28th in 2016, she is a daughter of a very powerful Samurai Lord during Japanese Warring States Period in 16th Century.

Since last year, 2016, was the 400th Anniversary of her death, a special festival was held in the April and an old image of her, which was carved in about 1715 and was treasured at Shinsoin Temple, was carried out from the temple building and made a round trip as a parade to Shingenin Temple where Princess Matsu became the Buddhist nun after her family was destroyed.

The image had not been open to the public until last year, so a lot of people came to the 400th Anniversary Festival to see her image. Then, the Shinshoin Temple decided to exhibit the image again during the New Year's celebration this year.

The image was created after about 100 years after her death, but it is said that the image tells her appearance well. When I visited there, there were still New Year's decoration at the temple gate and a small Shinto shrine on the temple ground had Traditional New Year's offering rice cake inside. In the front room many photos of the 400th Anniversary Festival were displayed, then in the inner room the image of Princess Matsu was sitting quietly as you can see in the photos on the lower row above.

The size of the image was almost actual size of human being and the eyes were made of glass which gives her eyes a real sparkle. Her face had a peaceful look mixed with grace and dignity. Many local people were visiting there and putting the palm of their hands together in prayer. In the room there were many historical materials related to her such as her father's portraits, letters addressed to her, and her portrait painted in modern times. It seemed as if Princess Matsu has been sitting there surrounded by her belongings and watching over Hachioji all the time for these four hundred years.

Apparently the temple people are now thinking about having the same kind of exhibition next year during New Year's celebration. Let's hope we can have a chance to meet her again!