Artworks

Yakushi Triad, Yakushidō, Kami Daigoji

Artwork · Anonymous · 907–913 · sculpture · Daigo-ji Temple

The only work surviving from the original Kami (Upper) Daigoji, the mountain temple founded by Shōbō and supported by Daigo: the healing Buddha seated on a tall lotus base, flanked by the much shorter bodhisattvas Nikkō and Gakkō. Begun around 907 and completed by 913, it is a benchmark of early tenth-century sculpture: a large figure of calm power whose spread knees give a solid base. Carved mainly in ichiboku-zukuri with more added blocks than before, hollowed from the back, lacquered and gilded. The hall that houses it dates from 1121. 1 Mason 2005, pp. 137–138, fig. 166. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.