Yumedono (Dream Hall)
Octagonal hall sheltering a gilded camphor-wood Kannon kept hidden in cloth for centuries before its dramatic unveiling.
This guide to Yumedono in Nara follows the Guze Kannon, a statue kept sealed in cloth for so long that Horyuji's priests in eighteen eighty-four warned that breaking the wrapping would bring an earthquake down on the temple. It traces how American art historian Ernest Fenollosa, sent to catalogue Japan's threatened treasures, pressed the reluctant priests until they finally agreed to open the altar, and how historians now doubt the wrapping was anywhere near as old as the legend claimed. Listen for how many layers of cloth it actually took before anyone could see what was underneath.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.