National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

Resembling bronze mirrors, kakebotoke are hanging plaques with images of deities either rendered in relief or attached in three-dimensional forms. Kakebotoke are thought to have been derived from votive mirrors (metal disks with line engravings of Shinto and Buddhist deities). This example is a Sannō Mandala plaque. To make it, the deities venerated at ten Sannō shrines were hammered out in repoussé from bronze sheets. Details were added in line engraving, and they were then riveted to a circular bronze plaque. The plaque is edged along the rim, and flower-shaped metal fittings mounted with rings for hanging the plaque are set in two locations along the top. The particularly large figure in the center is Ōmiya in the guise of a monk. Clockwise from the upper right, the deities are: Hachiōji, Shōshinshi in the guise of a monk, the deity of the second shrine in the guise of a monk, the monkey god Daigyōji, Ushi no Miko in the guise of an ox couchant, Hayao, Jū Zenshi appearing as the bodhisattva Jizō (Skt. Kṣitigarbha), the goddess of Maroudo Shrine, and the goddess of the third shrine. Their names are inscribed on the back in places corresponding to each deity’s position. An inscription in the center reveals the plaque was produced on the 19th day of the 7th month of Kenpō 6 (August 11, 1218 [Julian calendar]) by Taira no Kagetoshi, an estate administrator (azukari dokoro) in Asodani (now Sue, Asagiri, Kuma District, Kumamoto Prefecture). The inscribed date makes the plaque an important reference work for the early Kamakura period (1185–1333) in addition to its importance as an artifact associated with Hiyoshi Taisha/Sannō Shrine.