かつて、飢饉や自然災害によって多くの人々が命を落とした時代、人々は亡くなった方々の冥福を祈り、二度と災害や地震が起こらないことを願って、千人の僧侶の姿を描いた「千人仏」を奉納したと伝えられています。

　このプロジェクトは、東日本大震災の被災地の仮設住宅に全国のアーティストたちが絵画の指導者として５年にわたり通い、被災した人たち自身の手で1000枚の仏画を描いてもらうもので、この指導におけるコミュニケーションこそが、アートを通じた「心の復興」を届けることになると考えたものです。

　完成後は、震災の記憶を未来の世代へ伝えていくための象徴として、東京表具経師内装文化協会のご協力もあり、世界最大級の巨大な掛け軸としてさまざまな美術館等で展示されました。
 

In premodern Japan, periods of famine and natural disaster often gave rise to collective acts of prayer for the dead and for protection from future calamities. Among these traditions was Senninbutsu (“One Thousand Buddhas”), in which numerous Buddhist figures were created as an expression of remembrance, mourning, and communal hope.

The Senninbutsu Project reinterprets this historical practice through the language of contemporary socially engaged art.

Following the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, artists from across Japan visited temporary housing communities in the affected regions over a period of five years. Rather than simply producing artworks for disaster survivors, the project invited residents themselves to participate in the creative process, resulting in 1,000 individual charcoal drawings of Buddhist figures.

At the core of the project was not only the production of these images, but the relationships formed through making them. The encounters between artists and participants — conversations, shared time, and the act of drawing together — became an essential part of the work. In this sense, the project approached art as a relational and participatory practice: a space in which people could reconnect with others, articulate memory and loss, and gradually rebuild a sense of emotional and social continuity.

The completed 1,000 drawings were later brought together, with the cooperation of the Tokyo Association of Hyogu, Kyoshi and Interior Crafts, to form one of the world’s largest hanging scrolls.

Presented in museums and other cultural venues, the monumental work functions not simply as an object of commemoration, but as an archive of individual participation and collective memory. It carries the experience of the disaster beyond the communities in which it was created, transmitting both the memory of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the human relationships generated through the project to future generations.