Treasures Gallery
The first basement floor of the Daiden (Great Hall) houses the Treasures Gallery, an exhibition space completed in 2015. The centerpiece of the gallery is the extraordinarily detailed 1:10 scale model of the Taitokuin Mausoleum, the original burial site of second shogun Tokugawa Hidetada (1579–1632). The mausoleum, along with many of Zojoji Temple’s other structures, was destroyed in the 1945 air raids.
Taitokuin Mausoleum Scale Model
The elaborately detailed model recreates in miniature the skill of Edo artisans. It was commissioned by the city of Tokyo to be displayed at the 1910 Japan-British Exhibition in London, and then presented to King George V. It was recently rediscovered in the Royal Collection, and returned on loan to Zojoji Temple. After careful restoration and reassembly, it was put on display in 2015.
Five Hundred Arhats by Kano Kazunobu
A rotating exhibition of a series of scrolls by the prominent Edo-period painter Kano Kazunobu (1816–1863) is on display. The Five Hundred Arhats depicts the enlightened disciples of Buddha in 100 finely painted scenes of their daily lives, ranging from the touchingly mundane to vivid scenes of hell and destruction. Commissioned by the head priest of Genkoin, a subsidiary temple of Zojoji, Kazunobu spent 10 years producing the scrolls, sadly dying just prior to completion. The last four scrolls were finished under the direction of his wife, who arranged for the collection to be exhibited at a hall just inside the Sanmon Gate. Though the building was destroyed in the 1945 air raids, the scrolls survived.