A wooden sculpture of a slender person standing upright on a detailed pedestal. They are wearing draped cloth that covers their legs and goes across their shoulder and chest. They are wearing a small headpiece and have short hair.
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front Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

The wooden sculpture is of a slender person standing upright on a pedestal. The pedestal is wide at the bottom, has a small midsection, and is wide at the top with organic carved details on it. The sculpture is light brown and medium brown in color. The person is wearing draped cloth that covers their legs, torso, and goes over their left shoulder. Their left hand is bent up so their closed hand is close to their chest. Their right hand is down at their side with their hand open and pointing down. They have short hair and are wearing a headpiece. They have a dot in between their eyebrows.

Gallery Text

Crafted for Japanese Buddhist image halls of the Heian (794–1185) and Kamakura (1185–1333) periods, the objects in this case were once part of magnificent architectural and sculptural ensembles intended to render the Western Pure Land of the Buddha Amitabha physically present in our earthly realm. To be reborn in the Western Pure Land guaranteed the attainment of awakening; the splendors of this distant land were evoked with gleaming, gilded sculptures of Amitabha and his heavenly entourage, including bodhisattvas and angel-like apsarases. Icons of Amitabha were further canopied with stylized flower garlands in gilt bronze.

This period saw the rise to prominence of wooden statuary, which came to surpass bronze as the main material for Japanese Buddhist sculptures thereafter. Placed within the magnificent settings of image halls, Buddhist sculptures themselves became increasingly decorative and included the extensive use of brilliant polychromy; cut-gold leaf patterning (called kirikane) in the drapery; and metal adornments for crowns, headdresses, and accessories. Despite the richness of their robes and settings, the idealized facial expressions of the figures are serene and introspective — characteristics that reflect the aesthetic ideals of the statues’ courtly patrons.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1936.133
Title
Standing Arya-Avalokiteshvara (Shō Kannon bosatsu) on a Lotus Base, one from a set of 1,000 images formerly in Kōfuku-ji, Nara
Other Titles
Transliterated Title: Shō Kannon bosatsu [Kōfuku-ji]
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, figure
Date
Late Heian period, 12th century
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, Japan, Nara Prefecture, Nara
Period
Heian period, Late, 898-1185
Culture
Japanese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/206339

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2740, Buddhist Art, The Efflorescence of East Asian and Buddhist Art
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Wood, single-woodblock construction; with traces of polychrome and lacquer-applied gold leaf
Dimensions
H. 47.9 x W. 16 x D. 16 cm (18 7/8 x 6 5/16 x 6 5/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Mrs. Waldo E. Forbes, Milton, MA (by 1936), gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1936.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Mrs. Waldo E. Forbes
Accession Year
1936
Object Number
1936.133
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • John M. Rosenfield, Japanese Arts of the Heian Period: 794-1185, Asia Society Inc. (New York, 1968), Plate 30f / pp. 70 & 117-118
  • Anne Nishimura Morse and Samuel Crowell Morse, Object as Insight: Japanese Buddhist Art & Ritual, exh. cat., Katonah Museum of Art (Katonah, NY, 1995), pp. 99-101, cat. 43

Exhibition History

  • S425: East Asian Buddhist Sculpture, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 10/20/1985 - 04/30/2008
  • Japanese Art of the Heian Period (794-1185), Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 06/06/2002 - 07/05/2002
  • 32Q: 2740 Buddhist II, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu