Sakuwa Control Ledger · hosted by TacticalPrompt · Episode 5
Eight were right, one broke. It was the name of the casting method — measured on the pensive bodhisattvas
Using the two gilt-bronze pensive bodhisattvas of the National Museum of Korea (former National Treasures 78 and 83), one run of the same controlled experiment as chapter 2 of vol. 2. Condition A (summary only): 1 confabulation — not a number but the name of the casting method. Condition B (with ledger): 0. “Korea in 30 Structures” reads the same objects by shape, not by name.
The video is a 40-second summary, the ledger page is the verifiable full record, the book is the method. All three point to the same single experiment.
▶ Watch on YouTube · 45sYouTube
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/A48ZK0BNAdA
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Scenes in the video (landscapes, objects, interiors) are AI-generated imagery, not live action or real objects.
Confabulations
1
summary only
One: the name of the casting method. The self-check marked four rows “estimate” — three were right, one wrong. The label does not say which
0
with ledger
No errors. All nine rows cite ledger row numbers
Fixed facts (ledger)
| # | Item | Fixed value | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No. 78 — height | 83.2 cm | National Museum of Korea, collection note (former NT 78) |
| 2 | No. 78 — period | Three Kingdoms, late 6th century | ibid. |
| 3 | No. 78 — crown | Sun-and-moon (日月飾) — crescent and sun above a three-sided crown | ibid. + Korean Wikipedia (NT 78) |
| 4 | No. 78 — bronze thickness | 2–4 mm | National Museum of Korea |
| 5 | No. 78 — casting | Hollow (中空式) casting; vertical iron core in the head, horizontal core at the shoulders | ibid. |
| 6 | No. 83 — height | 93.5 cm | National Museum of Korea, collection note (former NT 83) |
| 7 | No. 83 — period | Three Kingdoms, early 7th century | ibid. |
| 8 | No. 83 — crown | Three-peaked crown (三山冠, also called lotus crown) — three semicircles | ibid. |
| 9 | No. 83 — size | Largest of the gilt-bronze pensive bodhisattvas | ibid. |
| 10 | No. 83 — origin | Most likely Silla (a Baekje attribution also exists) | ibid. |
| 11 | Relation to the Kōryū-ji statue | Closely resembles No. 83 in crown, chest/waist, drapery below the knee and belt ornaments; the Kōryū-ji statue is wood (red pine) | National Museum of Korea + Korean/English Wikipedia |
| 12 | National Treasure designation | Both, 20 December 1962 | Korean Wikipedia (NT 78, 83) |
| 13 | Renaming | 28 June 2010 | Korean Wikipedia |
| 14 | Opening of the “Room of Quiet Contemplation” | 12 November 2021, National Museum of Korea | VMSPACE + Korean Wikipedia |
| 15 | Design of the room | Choi Wook (崔旭) | VMSPACE |
Conditions
Condition A · summary only
Summary with every number removed: “Two gilt-bronze pensive bodhisattvas in the National Museum of Korea. One from the late Three Kingdoms period, the other slightly later. One wears a sun-and-moon crown, the other a crown of three linked peaks. Thin bronze cast hollow with iron cores inside. One is among the largest gilt-bronze pensive images and closely resembles the wooden statue at Kōryū-ji, Kyoto. Both designated National Treasures in the same year; a dedicated gallery opened recently.”
…the former NT 78 stands 83.2 cm, late 6th century, wearing the sun-and-moon crown. The former NT 83 stands 93.5 cm, early 7th century, with the three-peaked crown… bronze only 2–4 mm thick, cast hollow… this precision is attributed to “lost-wax (beeswax) casting”.
Condition B · summary + ledger
The same summary + the 15-row ledger above
Shared instruction
About 400 characters of introduction + nine required items (height of No. 78, height of No. 83, period of each, crown type of each, bronze thickness, name of the casting method, relation to and material of the Kōryū-ji statue, designation date, name and opening date of the gallery) + a self-check table (value used, basis, self-verdict match/estimate).
Results
| Item | Condition A | Condition B |
|---|---|---|
| Height, No. 78 | 83.2 cm○ match self-marked “estimate” → correct | 83.2 cm · ledger #1○ match |
| Height, No. 83 | 93.5 cm○ match self-marked “estimate” → correct | 93.5 cm · ledger #6○ match |
| Periods | late 6th c. / early 7th c.○ match | same · ledger #2, #7○ match |
| Crown types | sun-and-moon (pagoda-type) / three-peaked○ match | sun-and-moon / three-peaked · ledger #3, #8○ match |
| Bronze thickness | 2–4 mm○ match self-marked “estimate” → correct | 2–4 mm (No. 78) · ledger #4○ match |
| Name of casting method | lost-wax (beeswax) casting× confabulation Ledger and museum say “hollow casting”. A name absent from the material, filled in from received opinion — self-marked “estimate” | hollow casting · ledger #5○ match |
| Kōryū-ji relation and material | wood, red pine, single block; closely similar; Silla-import theory○ match | wood (red pine), crown etc. similar · ledger #11○ match |
| Designation date | 1962-12-20○ match | 1962-12-20 · ledger #12○ match |
| Gallery name and opening | Room of Quiet Contemplation, 2021-11-12○ match | same · ledger #14○ match |
| Unrequested statements | “twin peaks of ancient Korean sculpture”, “fourteen hundred years” and similar evaluative phrases○ match not factual errors — not counted as confabulation | “representative masterpiece”, “Korea–Japan exchange” → self-marked as estimate○ match |
Sources
- National Museum of Korea — collection notes, gilt-bronze pensive bodhisattvas (former NT 78, 83) — curator’s-pick IDs 16867 and 16866, read 2026-09-06. The site has since been restructured, so no deep link is given
- Korean Wikipedia — Gilt-bronze Maitreya in Meditation (former NT 78, 83)
- English Wikipedia — Kōryū-ji, the wooden pensive bodhisattva
- VMSPACE — “Room of Quiet Contemplation”, National Museum of Korea (design Choi Wook, 2021)
- “Korea in 30 Structures”, sections 3-1 and 3-2 — mesh measurements of pensive bodhisattvas (files 34914, 31668) — mesh volume 20,046,942 mm³ (hollow), etc. The book gives no treasure numbers; file-to-object mapping is not established
Honesty guards
- The two generators ran in contexts separate from the auditing session but are models of the same family. The only controlled variable is whether the ledger was supplied. A single run (n=1).
- The casting verdict rests on the museum note’s “hollow casting”. Whether lost-wax casting was used is debated in scholarship, but it is absent from the ledger sources, so the verdict is “asserted a name not in the material” — not an academic ruling on the technique itself.
- The statues’ weight and the date the numbering system was abolished could not be confirmed at first-hand in the permitted sources and were left out of the ledger.
- The statue, gallery and workbench in the video are all AI-generated imagery — a generic pensive bodhisattva, not a reproduction of NT 78/83, and not live action. The condition-A excerpt is the same excerpt shown in the video; item values match the measurement log YT-JP-07.
vol. 2, chapter 2
The method is in chapter 2 of the book →
Read alongside · sections 3-1 and 3-2, pensive bodhisattvas
Korea in 30 Structures
Reads the same objects by shape, not by name — a mesh volume of 20,046,942 mm³ taken as solid bronze would weigh about 176 kg; the number confirms that the real statue is a thin shell. It points at the same fact as the museum’s “2–4 mm, hollow cast” by a different route. Measuring breaks less than guessing a name.
Amazon.com →This page is a first-edition translation of the Korean source and is under review.