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

The curled fingers on the statue’s left hand indicate that it originally depicted the buddha Yakushi (Skt. Bhaiṣajyaguru) holding a medicine pot. The sculpture shares many similarities with wood-core dry lacquer statues from the late Nara period (710–794), including the stout, short body wrapped in robes with a sense of viscosity, full cheeks, and curves around the slightly up-angled eyes, suggesting the statue dates to around the same period. The skirt wrapped around the statue’s lower body flows over the lotus pedestal, hanging down as it catches on the tips of the lotus petals. This style is often seen in statues made during the Tang dynasty (618–907) in China but very few extant examples exist in Japan. It seems to have been produced with a keen awareness of sculptures from the Asian continent.

The entire figure, including the skirt hanging over the lotus pedestal, was made with relatively thick walls in a single casting. The inside is hollow. Some aspects suggest the statue was exposed to fire at some point in its history, such as the current lack of gilding and the rough surface texture. The fingers on the right hand are made of wood that was added later.