Buddha Unveiled.(''Treasures of a Great Zen Temple: The Nanzenji'')

Like many of her compatriots, Tokyo housewife Sachi Takeda describes herself as an "otera [temple] maniac" --a fan of the panels, sculpture and other religious-inspired artwork that can be found in Buddhist shrines in Japan. "Looking at somber pictures and sculptures makes me feel very serene and helps me forget my busy, messy everyday life," she says.

She had to put aside this hobby five years ago when she started having children--there just wasn't time to trek out to the old capitals of Kyoto and Nara in the west, where temples tend to be. So she's delighted that some of the country's best temple artwork is coming to her. From Jan. 20 to Feb. 29, the Tokyo National Museum will host "Treasures of a Great Zen Temple: The Nanzenji," which will showcase seven centuries of rarely seen antiques from Kyoto: exquisite ink paintings, portraits of leading monks and vivid pictures of mysterious- looking tigers on golden sliding doors. (The show moves on to the Kyoto National Museum from April 6 to May 16.) "It's like a dream," says Takeda.

The Nanzenji exhibit is just the latest among a growing number of major exhibitions of Buddhist-temple art. Most are planned to coincide with anniversaries (the Nanzenji founder, Cloistered Emperor Kameyama, died 700 years ago). But recently the temples have also begun making an effort to reach out to the public. The result is a boon to art lovers. "I have never seen such a surge of exhibitions that focus on collections of particular temples," says Yumio Watanabe, a senior project officer at the newspaper Asahi Shimbun.

That's particularly good news, given that the temples control perhaps half of all nationally protected cultural properties in Japan. While most of the artwork owned by samurai, or warriors, was burned with their castles or lost in the market long ago, the ones inside shrines survived for the most part intact. These include portrait sculptures of prominent monks, as well as paintings on scrolls, screens and sliding doors. From ancient times through the Edo period (1603-1867), powerful men had their official painters decorate temples. The Kano school, with its vivid colors and depictions of unique animals, dominated the art scene for 300 years.

Temples, though, aren't always the best places to see art. Rooms aren't lit, and visitors often can't get within several meters of paintings, making it hard to tell whether you're looking at a tiger or a tree. "Viewing these items up close, with lots of light in the room, is possible only in a museum show," says Hideaki Kunigo, a curator at the Tokyo National Museum.