Japan Navigator

Until December 3, the Tokyo National Museum is hosting an exhibition of Buddhist statues in the so-called ichiboku style under the title Shaping Faith. Sculptures in the ichiboku style have been carved from one piece of wood instead of being made by fitting a number of wooden blocks together (and pasting over the lines between them with lacquer). Although the ichiboku technique was often used for the earliest Japanese wood sculpture, from the 11th c. on the block technique (yoseki-zukuri) developed by Jocho become more popular as this enabled sculptors to create larger and more plastic statues.

[Tokyo National Museum]

In the exhibition in the Heiseikan of the TNM 146 statues are on view, divided into 4 sections: Sandalwood sculpture, Single-block sculpture, Hatchet carving and Enku & Mokujiki.

• Images from sandalwood or other fragrant woods are also called danzo. They were originally brought from Tang China and later copied in Japan. The first danzo statue was brought to Japan in 595, the genre remained popular until the early Heian-period. Danzo statues are usually relatively small, as frangrant wood was scarce and expensive. The carving is always very fine. The exhibition has an Eleven-headed Kannon made in China in the 7th c. (property of the museum) and another one made in Japan, also an Eleven-headed Kannon, which is owned by a Kyoto temple. Both are only 40-45 cm tall.
• Single-block sculpture developed under the influence of danzo statues; the best examples date from the 8th and 9th c., although this type of sculpture continues to made until today. The difference with sandalwood statues is, that more common types of wood are used and that the statues are usually larger. Another point is, that while head and body are carved from one block, the hands, feet and other protruding parts are often carved from separate pieces of wood and later fitted to the statue. One more characteristic is that one-block statues have been hollowed out inside to prevent the wood from cracking and to make the statue lighter. Great examples in the exhibition include the Eleven-headed Kannon from Doganji in Shiga and a Meditating Bodhisattva with one leg crossed from Hobodai-in in Kyoto. The massiveness of the wood adds to the impact of both statues.
• Hatchet carving (natabori) is a technique where the round chisel marks are left on the statue, without smoothing it or applying a finish. Most samples date from the 10th-13th c., and the natabori style was geographically limited to eastern and northern Japan. The style has a great directness and simplicity. Usually hardwood is used, as the Judas tree or zelkova. In the exhibition you can see the Yakushi Triad from Hojobo in Kanagawa, which was made in the 10th c. and forms the earliest example of the style. The Standing Eleven-headed Kannon from Gumyoji is also very impressive. (Other excellent examples of the technique can be found in Iwate Pref, for example in Tendaiji).
• The works of the Edo-period priest-sculptors Enku and Mokujiki are in a naive style that borrows - certainly in the case of Enku, who studied the natabori statues of Northern Japan - from hatchet carving. They are roughly hewn scultptures, made with a few fast strikes of the hatchet. Enku reputedly carved 120,000 statues, as an act of piety and prayer, or to comfort people he met on his long travels.