Artworks

Amida Nyorai, Hōōdō, Byōdōin

Artwork · Jōchō · c. 1053 · sculpture · Byōdō-in Temple

The only surviving work of Jōchō (d. 1057), the foremost sculptor of his time, whom Michinaga had commissioned for the sculptures of Hōjōji and who rose to the ranks of Hokkyō and Hōgen. Assembled from fifty-three pieces of wood (yosegi-zukuri) — light and ethereal, and a way of working that let a master’s studio produce large images. Jōchō’s canon of proportions takes the height of the face as unit, and the distance between the knees equals that from the base to the hairline, giving the figure stability and calm. Amida sits in meditation, his gaze unfocused, before an openwork gold halo of flames and under a round canopy. 1 Mason 2005, pp. 144–145, fig. 174. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.