Buddhist Art in Japan - Asuka and Nara Periods

Asuka and Nara Periods

Buddhist art was introduced to Japan along with the Buddhist religion in the mid-sixth century, when according to tradition, Seong of Baekje sent a statue of the Buddha along with some sutras to the Emperor Kimmei. The Asuka period (552–645) saw the gradual growth of Chinese and Korean artistic and religious influences on Japanese culture. Chinese influence grew in the Nara Period (645–784) as the Japanese court began to model itself in a Chinese form, and Buddhism continued to spread throughout Japan, while integrating within it the Japanese religion of Shinto.

The sculpture of this period shows, as do most all subsequent sculpture, the influence of continental art. Tori Busshi a descendant of a Chinese immigrant followed the style of Northern Wei sculpture and established what has come to be known as the Tori school of sculpture. Notable examples of Tori works are the Sakyamuni Triad (or Shaka triad) which are the main icons of the Golden Hall of Hōryū-ji temple and the kannon Boddhisatva of Yumedono Hall of the same temple, also known as Guze Kannon. First built in the early 7th century as the private temple of Crown Prince Shōtoku, Hōryū-ji consists of 41 independent buildings. The most important ones, the main worship hall, or Kondō (Golden Hall), and Gojū-no-tō (Five-story Pagoda), stand in the center of an open area surrounded by a roofed cloister. Inside the Kondō, on a large rectangular platform, are some of the most important sculptures of the period including the Sakyamuni triad.

In the Sakyamuni Triad, Sakyamuni, the center Buddha, is attended by two other figures, Bhaisajyaguru to its right and Amitābha to its left. The statues are dated to 623. The style of the statue is characterized by the two-dimensionality of the figure and the repetitive pattern-like depictions of the cloth the triad sits upon.

The Early Nara period saw a move towards more naturalistic styles emerging from China. The Triad of Yakushi shows the healing Buddha which presides over the Eastern Pure Land attended by two Bodhisattvas Nikko and Gakko. The triad, housed in the Yakushiji temple (7th century in Nara), reveals Chinese and central Asian influences in its anatomical definition, naturalism and realistic drapery.

This sculpture also demonstrates the roots of Japanese art in the 1st-3rd century CE Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara, characterized by flowing dress patterns and realistic rendering, on which Chinese and Korean artistic traits were superimposed. After the Chinese Northern Wei buddhist art had infiltrated a Korean peninsula, Buddhist icons was brought Japan by Korean immigrants. Particularly, the semi-seated Maitreya form was adapted into a highly developed Ancient Greek art style which was transmitted to Japan as evidenced by the Kōryū-ji Miroku Bosatsu and the Chūgū-ji Siddhartha statues.They illustrate the terminal point of the Silk Road transmission of Art during the first few centuries of our era. Other examples can be found in the development of the iconography of the Japanese Fūjin Wind God, the Niō guardians, and the near-Classical floral patterns in temple decorations.

Temple building in the 8th century was focused around the Tōdai-ji in Nara. Constructed as the headquarters for a network of temples in each of the provinces, the Tōdaiji is the most ambitious religious complex erected in the early centuries of Buddhist worship in Japan. Appropriately, the 16.2-m (53-ft) Buddha (completed 752) enshrined in the main Buddha hall, or Daibutsuden, is a Rushana Buddha, the figure that represents the essence of Buddhahood, just as the Tōdaiji represented the center for Imperially sponsored Buddhism and its dissemination throughout Japan. Only a few fragments of the original statue survive, and the present hall and central Buddha are reconstructions from the Edo period.

Under the Ritsuryō system of government in the Nara Period, Buddhism was heavily regulated by the state through the Sōgō (僧綱?, Office of Priestly Affairs). During this time, Tōdai-ji served as the central administrative temple for the provincial temples for the six Buddhist schools in Japan at the time.

• The Shakyamuni Daibutsu Bronze (4.8 metres) is the oldest known sculpture of Buddha in Japan cast by Tori Busshi in 609.

• Kannon(Avalokitesvara) or Guze Kannon, wood plated with gold, crown: bronze openwork gilt. Early CE 7th century, Horyu-ji, Nara.

• Bodhisattva, Asuka period, 7th century. Tokyo National Museum.

• Tile with seated Buddha

• 7th century Nara temple roof tile showing Greco-Buddhist influence.

• Triad of Yakushi at Yakushi-ji, Nara. Originally built in Fujiwara-kyō in 680, transported to Nara in 718.

• Golden Hall of Hōryū-ji

• Five-storied Pagoda of Hōryū-ji

• Golden Hall of Tōshōdai-ji in Nara

• Lecture Hall of Tōshōdai-ji in Nara

• Yakushi-ji's East Pagoda, Nara.

• Great Buddha hall of Tōdai-ji in Nara

• Great Buddha of Tōdai-ji in Nara