This statue of Guanyin is comparable to the statue of Venus de Milo and is known as the pinnacle of Buddhist art in the Tianping era. It was the American East Asian art historian Ernest Fenollosa who discovered the aesthetic value of this Buddha statue.

This Japanese song in “Man’yoshu” describes the scene of the ancient capital of Nara, which is as prosperous as when cherry blossoms are in full bloom and the city is filled with fragrance. Such a prosperous and prosperous era may have been reflected in the slender and solemn eyes of this Buddha statue. This standing statue of the eleven-faced Guanyin Bodhisattva was made during the Tenpyo period, when the culture of Heijo-kyo, the capital city of Nara, was at its peak. The Buddha statue uses multiple faces to express the magical power of Guanyin Bodhisattva to relieve various sufferings.

The Tenpyo Period is a chronological division in the history of art, referring to the most prosperous period of Buddhist art in the Nara Period (710-793). Although some people think it is equivalent to the Nara period, I have always defined the period from 710 to 783 as the Tenpyo period. In the book “A Tour of Ancient Temples”, the ethics scholar Watsuji Tetsuro praised this Buddha statue, which was made in the 860s, as “the first masterpiece of balance”.

This eleven-faced Avalokitesvara statue was originally the main image of Daigorinji Temple. Oogiriji Temple is a Jinguji Temple (a Buddhist temple attached to a shrine – translation) located in the Ogami Shrine with Mount Miwa as the sacred mountain. During the Nara period, in order to allow the coexistence of Shinto and Buddhist beliefs, Japan began to see the phenomenon of “Shin-Buddhist fusion”, which was the fusion and compromise of Japan’s native beliefs and Buddhism. At that time, a temple was built attached to the shrine. The gods enshrined in the shrine were mainly mirrors and swords, while the main deities enshrined in the temple were Buddha statues.

Time changed, and in 1868 (the 4th year of Keio), with the promulgation of the Meiji government’s “Order on the Separation of Shinto and Buddhism”, Daigorinji Temple, the Jinguji Temple within the shrine, was abandoned. Therefore, the Guanyin statue was handed over to Shenglin Temple for safekeeping. In 1878 (Meiji 11), the American philosopher Fenollosa was invited by the Japanese government to teach at Tokyo Imperial University, and at the same time devoted himself to the study of Japanese art. When he inspected the Buddha statue, he was amazed by the beauty of the Buddha statue, so he donated a movable Buddhist niche with wheels to facilitate evacuation in case of unexpected events.

At that time, many Buddha statues were destroyed or abandoned during the movement to abolish Buddhas and destroy temples. Fenollosa, however, recognizes its cultural value and actively carries out protection work for Buddhist statues. His efforts finally bore fruit when the “Law for the Preservation of Ancient Shrines and Shrines” was promulgated in 1897 (Meiji 30). In 1899, the Buddha statue became a national treasure based on this law. After World War II, according to the Cultural Heritage Protection Act enacted in 1951, it became the first batch of cultural relics designated as national treasures.

This Buddha statue was made using the “wood core dry lacquer” process, which involves gluing linen cloth on a wooden body (the head and body are a single piece of wood), and then mixing wood powder and lacquer to make “wooden lacquer” and applying it to the surface to shape it. In the second half of the Nara period, Buddha statues were no longer carved, but were instead stacked to express the softness of the fingers. This Buddha statue also expresses the texture of the strands of hair, and emphasizes the wrinkled texture of the clothes by applying a thick layer of wood varnish. The head has a certain sense of depth, which creates a sense of heaviness to the entire Buddha statue.

The key word for making Buddha statues in this era is “realistic completion.” The so-called realism refers to expressing things truthfully without adding subjective feelings. From the Asuka Period to the Hakuho Period, as the times changed, the completion of the carving process continued to improve. By the Tenpyo Period, lifelike and realistic Buddha statues began to be produced. This Buddha statue is worthy of being a treasure of the ancient capital of Nara when Buddhism and Buddhist art flourished.

Eleven-faced Guanyin Bodhisattva standing statue

Image height: 209.1 cm

Era: Late Nara period

Collection: Shenglin Temple

national treasure

Banner photo: Eleven-faced Guanyin Bodhisattva statue (collected by Seungrin Temple)