Important Cultural PropertyAvalokitesvara (Kannon Bosatsu)

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  • 1 statue
  • Cast bronze, gold-plated
  • Statue H28.5
  • Asuka period/7-8th century
  • Tokyo National Museum
  • N-171

Standing with its left leg forward and slightly turning its body, this image suggests some movement. It displays not sculpturing, but more modeling characteristics. At the same time, it also shows some carelessness. The eyes look as if they had been drawn on the clay with a spatula and the right and left eyes are misaligned. Overall, this image gives the impression of rough sculpturing, probably due to the incomplete finish on the surface.
The image, including the pedestal, is created in one cast except the decorations hanging from the right and left sides of the chest ornament (currently, the left one is missing). There are also holes in the bases of the right and left head ornaments on the back of the head, which seem to be traces of decorations (maybe hanging ribbons) that were cast separately. Only the pedestal is hollowed out and the image above it is solid. The front half of the round frame of the pedestal has been tinkered with and an inlay treatment is applied to the area from the front center to the right side of the pedestal. There are small mold cavities across the board and big ones are concentrated in the head. The inside surface of the hollowed pedestal is very rough. While gold plating remains over almost the entire surface except the reverse side of the head ornaments and the hair, nothing is known about the coloring at present (there is a faint amount of lapis lazuli-like pigment on the hair).

Pieces

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