Reflections of the Buddha - The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts

Gallery Guide & Checklist
Entrance Gallery
Japan: Pure Land Sculpture in the 11th & 13th Centuries
Pure Land, a form of Mahāyāna Buddhism, venerates the Buddha Amitābha (Buddha of Immeasurable Light). One
of the Buddhas of the Ten Directions, Amitābha presides over a pure Buddha realm called “Land of Bliss,” which
lies in the West. He brings to his realm anyone desiring to be reborn there and aids him or her in attaining enlightenment.
Pure Land became increasingly popular in Japan from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries and
inspired many sculptural commissions depicting Amitābha. The use of wood (often cypress) and lacquer, along
with a naturalistic treatment of the body and the adoption of inlaid rock crystal, became distinctive features of
these sculptures.
1. Standing Prince Shōtoku at Age Two
(Shōtoku Taishi Nisaizō), c. 1292
Japan, Kamakura period, 1185 – 1333; Japanese
cypress (hinoki) wood; assembled woodblock
construction with polychromy and rock-crystal
inlaid eyes; 26¾ x 9¾ x 9 in.; Harvard Art
Museums / Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Promised
gift of Walter C. Sedgwick in memory of Ellery
Sedgwick Sr. and Ellery Sedgwick Jr., 99.1979.1
Prince Shōtoku (574 – 622) was one of Japan’s earliest followers
and patrons of Buddhism. Starting in the eleventh
century, new sects of Pure Land Buddhism exalted
Shōtoku as an incarnation of Śākyamuni. Portraits of
Shōtoku depicted significant episodes and legends about
his life. This is the earliest extant sculpture showing him
at the age of two, when he reputedly faced east, placed
his palms together, and said the nembutsu, a Pure Land
Buddhist practice of reciting the name of Amitābha.
2. Left Hand of a Colossal Buddha Amitābha
(Amida Nyōrai), c. 1202
Attributed to Kaikei, Japanese, active
c. 1183 – 1236; Kamakura period,
1185 – 1333; Japanese cypress
(hinoki) wood with traces of lacquer,
polychromy, and gilding; probably from an Amida triad originally
at the Shin-Daibutsu-ji Temple in Iga, Mie Prefecture;
10½ x 26¼ x 12 in.; Harvard Art Museums / Arthur M. Sackler
Museum, Gift of Charles Bain Hoyt, 1931.9
Scholars recently attributed this hand to a 16-ft. high
Amitābha sculpture commissioned by Monk Shunjōbō
Chōgen (1121 – 1206) and created by the master sculptor
Kaikei, both extremely influential cultural figures in the
Kamakura period. The mudrā, or hand gesture, depicted
is one of welcoming used by Amitābha to greet the dead
into the Land of Bliss: The middle and third fingers curve
inward, with the middle one joined to the thumb.
3. Standing Buddha Amitābha (Amida Nyōrai),
mid-13th century
Japan, Kamakura period, 1185 – 1333; wood with
gold pigment, lacquer, gilding, and rock-crystal
insets; 44⅜ x 20 x 20 in.; Saint Louis Art
Museum, Museum Purchase, 132:1966
In this sculpture, rock crystal helps represent
Amitābha’s emanating light—in his
eyes, at the base of the cranial protuberance
known as usnīsa (a sign of expanded and radiating wisdom),
and as the ūrnā (the third eye on his forehead
indicating spiritual insight and illumination). Although
these are common characteristics of the Śākyamuni image,
the welcoming mudrā identifies the image as
Amitābha. Once thought to be the work of Kaikei—the
artist of the colossal hand nearby—this sculpture is now
attributed to a follower from a generation or so later.
4. Head of a Celestial Attendant, Presumably Head of a
Bodhisattva (Bosatsu) or of an Apsara
(Hiten), c. 1053
Attributed to Studio of Jōchō, Japanese, died
1057; Heian period, 794 – 1185; Japanese
cypress (hinoki) wood with traces of polychromy;
8� x 3� in.; Harvard Art Museums /
Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Promised gift of
Walter C. Sedgwick in honor of John
Rosenfield, 89.1979
This head is thought to be that of one of fifty-two celestial
attendants that once accompanied a colossal
Amitābha statue at the Hōō-dō (Phoenix Hall) of the
Byōdō-in temple in Uji, near Kyoto. Here, the sculptor
Jōchō sought to replicate Amitābha’s Land of Bliss, where
attendants fly overhead and praise Amitābha by scattering
flowers, playing instruments, and burning incense.