Sutra container

This cylindrical container was an outer case for another container that held a sutra, or Buddhist scripture. The inner case was probably bronze, similar to the example displayed beside it here. Sutras were copied by hand and buried in sutra mounds in order to accumulate merit for the burier as a type of good deed. Now worn down, the round and slightly pointed knob on top of the lid originally took the shape of a hōju, the sacred “wish-fulfilling jewel” often seen in Buddhist imagery.