Survey of a Sculpture of Buddha Using X-Ray Computed Tomography

Abstract

X-ray Computed Tomography (XCT) is an excellent and promising technique of surveying the inner part of a body, but it has hitherto been rarely applied to other fields than the clinical medicine. The authors tried to apply XCT to the investigation of a sculpture of Buddha and obtained a satisfactory result.
The sculpture of Buddha in question is about 1 meter high and made of wood (Japanese cypress). It is an artifact of the 12th century. Since its structure is much complicated, the X-ray radiography, the most popular method of the scientific examination of art objects, could not reveal the details. By using XCT apparatus we could not only guess the structure of a sculpture of Buddha easily and correctly, but also could reveal a miniature Buddha and several pieces of paper confined in the main body.
XCT is also suited for the estimation of wood deterioration. For this purpose the X- ray energy of the medical XCT apparatus is detrimental because of its strong penetration force. We calculated theoretically an optimum X-ray energy level for the detection of deteriorated part (10keV) and confirmed it experimentally.
In view of its great possibility, XCT, with a further improvement in the method to manipulate it, may find a wide range of application in all sorts of technical fields.