Sōgyō Hachiman (10th century): Artwork and History

Sōgyō Hachiman (10th century) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Japan.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

This work is believed to be part of a group of sculptures produced by one studio around the same time, possibly for a processional ritual. The literal meaning of its title is “Hachiman in the guise of a monk.” The cult of the Shinto deity Hachiman originated at Usa in northeast Kyushu, a site relatively close to the Korean peninsula and also a prominent early Buddhist center. Buddhism had been introduced into Japan in the 6th century, and monks became one of the most recognizable symbols of its practice. Hachiman’s “guise” reflects the melding of Buddhist and indigenous Shinto beliefs into a shared iconography.

Object facts

• Title: Sōgyō Hachiman
• Date: 10th century
• Artist attribution: Japan
• Place of origin: Japan
• Medium: Wood with traces of white pigment
• Dimensions: 53.3 × 46.4 cm (21 × 18 1/4 in.)
• Type: Sculpture
• Department: Arts of Asia
• Reference number: 1960.755

Collection credit

Gift of the Joseph and Helen Regenstein Foundation

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.