The group of some fifty gilt bronze Buddhist statuettes known as the Shijūhattai Butsu (“Fortyeight Buddhist Statues”), originally presented by the Hōryū-ji to the Imperial Collection and now kept in the Tokyo National Museum, includes a detached holo (Fig. 1) which has an inscription stating to the effect that it was made at the behest of Ō-Enson in the year of 甲寅 (Wood Senior and Tiger, one of the sixty combinations of the five elements and twelve animals constituting the sexagenery cycle). The year 甲寅 to mentioned in the inscription is generally interpreted as A. D. 654, but Dr. KOBAYASHI Takeshi and Prof. MIZUNO Seiichi regard it to be 594, discussing on its stylistic similarity to such haloes excavated in Korea as those with dates which they interpret as 571 (Fig. 2), 596 (Fig. 3) and others. The present writer is in support of the 594 theory, due to the reasons as follows. The inscriptions on the above-mentioned haloes all contain the same phrase “see the Buddha and hear the Buddhist Law”. This phrase, and phrases similar in meaning, were in fashionable use during 534-550 in the East Wei Dynasty. From this fact it is evident that the halo “made by Ō-Enson” is a Korean work ; even if it was produced in Japan, or if the inscription was added in Japan, it was doubtless made by a Korean imigrant or his descendant. It is thus an important specimen harbingering the advent of the earliest Japanese Buddhist sculpture in the Asuka Period (early seventh century). The inscription on an Asukaperiod gilt bronze statue dated 628, and the inscription on a plaque inside a statue of 694 (which, according to the present writer, should more properly be interpreted as 634), include the phrase “jointly to attain religious enlightenment”, phrases of approximately similar purports having been frequently used in China during 550-577 in the North Ch’i Dynasty. The chronological relation between the two customary phrases in Japan coincides approximately with that in China, though they appeared about half a century later respectively than in China. The haloes of 571, 594 and 596 dates, of beautifully balanced shapes narrowing downwards, show the polished style of gilt bronze statuary traditional from the North wei, but such contemporary Japanese works as those for the Shaka (Śākyamuni) Trinity in the Golden Hall of the Hōryū-ji (Fig. 5), for two of the Shijūhattai Butsu (Figs. 6 and 7), and the one dated 628 cited above (Fig. 8), though these are bronze works, do not show the polished style of bronze sculpture. Probably these Japanese haloes followed the style of stone carving exemplified by the stone halo from I-shan (Fig. 4), through which accurate copying of the style of bronze sculpture was not always possible. From the above-mentioned point of view, it may be inferred that in about 600 A.D. bronze sculpture in Korea had been far more advanced both technically and stylistically than in Japan. The subject halo made by Ō-Enson 王延孫 is a fine example. The close affinity of Korean and Chinese sculpture at the time is proven geographically by the discovery of gilt bronze statues (Figs. 9 and 10) from the ruins of the Yüeh-shêng-ssŭ Temple at Ch'ü-fu, Shan-tung.