Gallery Fake

The Missing Golden Buddha (1x5)

Air date: Feb 05, 2005

Mohorito Chinen, a Head-Inspector of Cultural Assets, visits Fujita inquiring about the theft of a carved wooden Bodhisattva statue from a Buddhist temple in Nara. Intrigued, Fujita visits the temple where they see an old wooden Fudou-Myou-Ou statue carved from a tree. The old owner who believes Fujita and Chinen were sent by his son Akihiko who is after the property and resents his father for how he poorly he treated his mother. Fujita offers to restore the statue, and researches the archives about a rumored golden Buddha statue that was once in the temple. While moving the fragile statue, a metal Buddha statue falls out, but heavily corroded as it was composed of gold, copper and silver. Frustrated because he hoped to requisition a golden statue, Chinen leaves in disgust. However, the statue is a fake, planted by Fujita who then retrieves the original golden Buddha statue from inside the Fudou-Myou-Ou. Meanwhile Akihiko and his father reconcile, and after they place the golden statue inside a tree for protection, Akihiko offers to sell the Bodhisattva statue he stole to Fujita, and then use the money to preserve the temple.