National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

This statue of the buddha Yakushi (Skt. Bhaişajyaguru) was initially worshipped as the embodiment of a Shinto deity at Kumano Nyakuōji Shrine in Kyoto’s Higashiyama area. According to tradition, the shrine was built around the late 12th century by Emperor Go-Shirakawa (1127–1197), after his abdication, to invite the deities of the famed pilgrimage site Kumano in the Kii Mountains to descend in Kyoto. As noted below, however, the statue itself likely dates to the 9th century, and no one knows where it was originally enshrined. During the early Meiji era (1868–1912), state policies mandated the separation of Shinto and Buddhist practice, and the statue entered the ownership of the shrine’s head priest. It then passed through three private collections before being transferred to the government.

Excluding the hands and spiral curls on the head, the entire piece, down to the top part of the lotus pedestal, was carved from a single block of what is probably Japanese torreya, and the inside was not hollowed out. These features reflect techniques used to make Buddhist sculptures from the late Nara (710–794) to early Heian (794–1185) period. The work can be dated to the mid-9th century due to the distinct way the robes are rendered in wave-like folds, with alternating ridged and rounded peaks, as well as its stylistic similarities to a statue of the bodhisattva Monju (Skt. Mañjuśrī) in the guise of a monk at Tōji Temple and the central buddha of the Amida (Skt. Amitābha) triad at Shitennōji Temple in Osaka.

Yakushi’s appearance has unmistakably international elements. The full eyelids and large irises visible through the eye’s narrow openings are reminiscent of faces on Buddhist statues in distant India. As such, the work can be seen as part of a distinct sculptural lineage that existed during the early Heian period with similar examples of Indian-influenced sculptures including the bodhisattva Nyoirin Kannon (Skt. Cintāmaṇicakra) of Kanshinji Temple in Osaka, the Eleven-Headed Bodhisattva Kannon (J. Jūichimen Kannon; Skt. Ekādaśamukha-avalokiteśvara) of Hokkeji Temple in Nara, and the buddha Yakushi in the Kōsetsu Museum of Arts.