Important Cultural PropertyBodhisattva sitting with his legs half-crossed

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  • 1 statue
  • Cast bronze, gold-plated
  • Statue H26.0
  • Asuka period/7th century
  • Tokyo National Museum
  • N-162

This image has unique facial features with big raised eyebrows and long slit eyes. The shin of the right leg is curved strongly and the knee is raised highly while upturned lotus petals appear alternately between the kun (a skirt) that hangs over the pedestal from both sides to the back. These features exhibit the unique sensitivity of the sculptor. It should also be noted that there are spike-like thin lines engraved on the petals of the lotus pedestal.
For casting, the area above the shoulders seems to have been recast due to a casting failure. The image is hollowed out below the hips and the upper half of the body above the hips is currently solid. However, there is a big cavity in the torso, which seems to have originally been connected with the hollow below the hips. The thickness of the copper in the hollow below the hips is relatively thin and almost even. The right and left thighs and the down-turned lotus petals have been partially tinkered with. There are big mold cavities around the chest and in the upper left arm and in the portion of the pedestal that has been tinkered with. The left decoration of the head ornament is separately made and the tenne (a long cloth) (currently, only part of it remains) that falls down from both thighs is made of copper plate and secured by copper rivets. Gold plating remains over almost the entire surface of the image except the reverse side of the crown and the back of the head. For coloring, lapis lazuli remains on the hair, vermillion (or Bengala) remains on the string tying the hair and the lips and black sumi lines on the eyebrows, the outline of the eyes, the eyeballs, the mustache and the beard can still be seen. The inner area from the pedestal frame to the lower base is painted in Bengala.

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