Seated Buddha (1100s): Art, History and Details

Seated Buddha (1100s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Composed of a number of hollowed-out pieces of wood that were then covered with lacquer and gilding, this sculpture served as an image of worship in one of the small temples surrounding Kōfukuji, a major Buddhist temple in Nara, Japan. Like many Buddhas, this figure has its right hand positioned in a gesture meaning "fear not." The left hand is a replacement, so its original gesture, a clue to this Buddha's identity, is unknown. However, as the left foot is exposed over the garment, in lotus position, it may have been created as a Medicine Master Buddha, Yakushi Nyorai in Japanese, or the Buddha of our era, Shakyamuni.

Object facts

• Title: Seated Buddha
• Date: 1100s
• Culture: Japan, Heian period (794–1185)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: gilded wood
• Dimensions: Overall: 145.4 cm (57 1/4 in.); Figure: 88.2 cm (34 3/4 in.); Pedestal: 57.2 cm (22 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1973.85

A detail from the museum

A 1906 photo taken at Kōfukuji shows this sculpture without a halo or left hand.

Collection credit

Gift of Takako Setsu and her husband, Iwao, in memory of her father-in-law, Inosuke Setsu, and his long friendship with Sherman E. Lee

Further reading listed by the museum

• Tōkyō Bijutsushō Kyōdō Kumiai 東京美術商協同組合. Kobijutsu tenkan tokubetsu sokubaikai: Orinpikku kinen [古美術展観特別即売会 : オリンピック記念 = Antique dealers' fair & exhibition in Tokyo: on the occasion of the Olympic Games]. Tōkyō: Tōkyō Bijutsushō Kyōdō Kumiai, 1964.
• “The Year in Review for 1973.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 61, no. 2, 1974, pp. 31–78.
• Yamane, Yūzō 山根有三, Shūjirō Shimada 島田修二郎, and Terukazu Akiyama 秋山光和. Zaigai Nihon no shihō [在外日本の至宝 = Japanese Art: Selections from Western Collections, vol. 8 ]. Tōkyō: Mainichi Shinbunsha, 1979.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.