Naoto Fukuyo (a doctoral student) and Professor Yusuke Yokoyama of the Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute of the University of Tokyo used the wooden guardian dog and lion statue in the Akagami Shrine in Oga City, Akita Prefecture for dating. It turns out that wood represents the 6th-11th centuries.It seems to be a material approaching the founding period of Akagami Shrine, which is said to be in the early Heian period (860 AD).
The guardian dog and lion statues are universally distributed throughout Japan as guardian statues of temples and shrines, but research from the perspective of art history has not progressed.Generally, in the case of a work of art, a method of assembling the chronology is used due to the difference in modeling, but the guardian dog has a high degree of freedom in modeling, and it is difficult to examine the age.In addition, although the annual ring dating method is widely used for dating wood, this method requires annual rings of 100 years or more and cannot be applied to small wooden relics such as guardian dogs.
Therefore, this time, samples were taken from the guardian dog and lion statues at Akagami Shrine every 10 to 20 years, and high-resolution radiocarbon dating was performed using an accelerated mass spectrometer *.Furthermore, the "Uighur matching method", which statistically compares these measured values with the calendar year calibration curve, was used to greatly reduce the error in dating.This is the first time in Japan that the Uighur matching method has been applied to wooden guardian dogs and lion statues.
As a result of the measurement, it was found that the wood of the guardian dog and lion statue shows the 6th to 11th centuries.Since there is no bark left, it is thought that it indicates an age older than the age when the timber was cut down, and it is possible that it was reused as a guardian dog / lion statue in later generations.Therefore, the age obtained this time cannot be regarded as the production age of the guardian dog / lion statue as it is.According to the remaining luck, Akagami Shrine was built in 860 AD in the early Heian period.At least, it can be said that the age of the wood itself used for these wooden guardian dogs and lion statues is likely to approach the time when the shrine was built.
Since there are only a few examples of radiocarbon dating of traditional wooden products in ancient and medieval Japan, this achievement is one of the few important basic materials.In addition, it is expected that understanding of the history of art will be promoted by giving quantitative dating results to the wooden guardian dog statue, which had a high degree of freedom in modeling and was difficult to examine chronologically.
* An accelerated mass spectrometer is a device that removes nuclides that interfere with measurement and measures radioactive carbon, which is present in an extremely small amount of less than one trillionth on the surface of the earth.The single-stage accelerator mass spectrometer used in this study is the only device in Japan.
Paper information:[Radiocarbon] AMS DATING OF POTENTIALLY THE OLDEST WOODEN SCULPTURES IN JAPAN FROM A SHINTO SHRINE IN AKITA
