美術研究所報

The standing Shaka (Buddha Śākyamuni) of the Seiryōji Temple in Kyoto was brought to Japan by Chōnen, a priest of the Tōdaiji Temple, who had had the statues made by crafts men in China in the year 985 A. D. The figure was supposed to be a copy of the original image which was made in Shaka's lifetime at the order of King Udayana of India. The chief characteristics of the Seiryōji statue are the exotic facial expression, the rope-coil curls of the head, the ample robe and the incisive swirls of the drapery covering the torso and the thighs. Worship of the Shaka statue of the Seiryōji Temple began in the Fujiwara Period and reached its peak of popularity in the Kamakura Period. Many copies were made, and there are about a hundred extant figures of this type in the whole of Japan, of which over ten are found in the Kanto Area (Tokyo and the six neighbouring prefectures, Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama, Ibaragi, Gumma and Tochigi). A Special tie existed from early days between the Seiryōji Temple Shaka and the Kanto Area. When the Seiryōji Temple was destroyed by fire in the beginning of the Kamakura Period, it was a priest from the Jikōji Temple in Musashi Province (actually Saitama Prefecture) who led in the efforts towards the rebuilding of the temple in Kyoto. The oldest dated specimen of the Seiryōji style Shaka is that of the Daienji Temple in Tokyo, which is dated the 4th year of Kenkyū (1193). The Seiryōji style Shaka statues in the Kantō Area can be divided into three groups. The first group comprises the Daienji Shaka, a faithful copy of the original from the Early Kamakura Period, and copies of this Daienji Shaka. The second group consists of the Shaka in the Eikōji Temple in Chiba Prefecture, which has a document inside the statue dated the 10th year of Bun-ei (1273), a similar Shaka from the Fukusenji Temple in Ibaragi Prefecture, a slightly different type of statue in the Gokurakuji Temple in Kamakura, and the statue in the Shōkakuin Temple in Chiba Prefecture which seems to be a copy of the above mentioned Eikōji Temple statue, made in the end of the Kamakura Period (early 14th cent.). This second group of statues shows the influence of the Shaka in the Saidaiji Temple in Nara. Priest Eison of the Saidaiji Temple, who did so much to promote the worship of Shaka, sent one of his sculptors to the Seiryōji Temple in 1249 to make a copy of the Shaka, which he installed in the Saidaiji Temple. This statue still exists. The exotic aspect of the original is toned down and the oval face and elegant features, as well as the lines of the figure itself, are very much in the Japanese style. Among the statues of the second group, the Shaka figures of the Eikōji and Fukusenji Temples, in particular, have an elegance and finish which seem to belie their Kanto origins. The third group of Seiryōji style Shaka statues belongs to yet another type, and dates from the late Kamakura Period. A representative example is the Shaka of the Tōgakuji Temple in Kanagawa Prefecture. The Shaka statues in the Shōmyāji Temple and Shimpukuji Temple, both in Kanagawa Prefecture, may also belong to this group. These figures are not strict copies of the original like the Daienji Shaka, but are more in the manner of provincial adaptations.