This statue of Dainichi, the Buddha of infinite illumination is a representation of the supreme god of the Shingon esoteric sect of Japanese Buddhism. It was made in 1149 and is currently on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in the Japanese Buddhist Temple Room gallery.
Brief Identification[]
The statue of Dainichi, the Buddha of Infinite Illumination (also called Maha-Vairocana [Hollis 1935, 116]) was made in the late Heian period in Japan around 1149. The statue is made of camphor wood and gold. It is currently in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston on display in the Japanese Buddhist Temple Room Gallery.
Technical Evaluation[]
Materials and Tools[]
The statue is made of camphor wood and gold in a lacquer and stands 141.6 cm tall. The wood used to make the sculpture is camphor which is native to Japan. It is likely that to gold used in the lacquer that covers the wood was also likely native to Japan as gold mining in Japan started in the mid 8th century. was used for guiding other statues such as the Buddha at Nara [Suzuki 2008, 356]. Japanese artisans used high grade chisels and cutting tools to created the intricate details of the statue. These tools became sharper and higher quality in the early Heian period when it was made.[Moran 1972, 121]
Technology and Techniques[]
Dainichi as the focal point of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston's Japanese Buddhist Temple Room Gallery. To its left is another Dainichi statue and to its left is a statue of Amida, Buddha Buddha of Infinite Light.
One of the major technological advancements viewable in this statue is the use of yosgie, or joined wood block construction. This form of sculpting was first notably done when making the Amida by Jōchō. This art became the most common procedure for making wood sculptures in the Heian period and was most notably used by Kōshō and Jōchō. Yosgie was done by carving separate pieces of wood an assembling them once finished. This vastly improved the speed and efficiency with which artisans could produce high quality objects at a reduced cost [The New Encyclopaedia Britannica volume 19 1974, 227].
Medieval Japanese artisans also had a special process for guiding their artwork, including statues with gold by applying a gold lacquer. The lacquer is put on in a process called Maki-e in which the lacquer is painted on the object first and subsequently gold powder is put on the surface of the lacquer while the lacquer is still wet [The New Encyclopaedia Britannica Volume 19 1974, 226].
Acquisition by the Museum of Fine Arts[]
According the the Museum of Fine Arts, the statue was acquired "by Denman Waldo Ross in Japan where he traveled in 1908" and was later "1909 given to the Museum by Denman Waldo Ross".
Local Historical Context[]
This sculpture was made in the late Heian period of Japanese history. This period of Japanese history follows the end of the Japanese ancient period and is marked by an increasing move towards Chinese bureaucratic ruling structures [Souryri 2001, 17]. In the end of the eleventh century, there were two ruling clans, the Taira and the Minamoto. These two clans held control of the massive warrior class which ruled most estates in the provinces of Japan [Souryri 2001, 18].
Japanese economy in this time was predominantly farming based with the majority of farmers cultivating rice and paying large taxes to the estate in which they worked. As farming became more efficient, an artisan and merchant class emerged leading the development of a more divers Japanese economy [Haruko 1975, 322].
Buddhism was a prominent religion in medieval Japan, but was changed when Kūkai brought Shingon Buddhism back from China [Hollis 1935, 115]. This for of Japanese Buddhism was largely kept in popularity by the aristocracy until the massive warrior class were drawn to it due to its approachable nature. It was made as an object of worship for those going to the temple. The statue is made so that it seemed more approachable and compassionate to the one who was worshiping it [Hollis 1935, 116].
World-Historical Significance[]
This form of Buddha comes from the Shingon sect of Esoteric Buddhism brought to Japan from China in A.D. 807 [Hollis 1935, 115]. This sect started some time in the late seventh century [Payne 2006, 82] and through its movement from India, China, and eventually to Japan, it had collected a vast amount of gods into its beliefs [Hollis 1935, 115]. Shingon was brought to japan by a man by who was named Kūkai who was raised in the Japanese aristocracy. After studying in China, he returned to Japan and founded Shingon in Japan. He brought back the concept that there are infinite numbers of Gods with Dainichi as the one above all the rest. This polytheistic view of Buddhism became widely shared among eastern Asian cultures [Weinstein 1974, 178].
Bibliography[]
Sources[]
Haruko, Wakita. "Towards a Wider Perspective on Medieval Commerce." Journal of Japanese Studies 1, no. 2 (1975): 321-45. doi:10.2307/132129.
Hollis, Howard C. "Dainichi Nyorai." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 22, no. 7 (1935): 115-17. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25137709.
Moran, Sherwood F. "Early Heian Sculpture at Its Best: Three Outstanding Examples." Artibus Asiae 34, no. 2/3 (1972): 119-61. doi:10.2307/3249644.
Payne, Richard K. "Shingonshū." In Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed., edited by Lindsay Jones, 8348-8354. Vol. 12. Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. Gale Virtual Reference Library (accessed November 11, 2018). http://link.galegroup.com.proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/apps/doc/CX3424502844/GVRL?u=uga&sid=GVRL&xid=3e603d56.
Payne, Richard K., and Taigen Daniel. Leighton. Discourse and Ideology in Medieval Japanese Buddhism. Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism. London ; New York: Routledge, 2006.
Souyri, Pierre-François. 2001. The World Turned Upside down : Medieval Japanese Society. Asia Perspectives. New York : Columbia University Press, ©2001. http://proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat06564a&AN=uga.9927339803902959&site=eds-live.
Suzuki, Shunichi. 2008. Chishitsugaku Zasshi = Journal of the Geological Society of Japan 114 (5): 256–61. http://proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=geh&AN=2009-008264&site=eds-live.
The New Encyclopaedia Britannica Volume 19. 15th ed. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1974
Weinstein, Stanley. "The Beginnings of Esoteric Buddhism in Japan: The Neglected Tendai Tradition." The Journal of Asian Studies 34, no. 1 (1974): 177-91. doi:10.2307/2052419.
Links[]
https://www.mfa.org/collections/object/dainichi-the-buddha-of-infinite-illumination-112089
https://www.mfa.org/collections/featured-galleries/japanese-buddhist-temple-room
http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1659/0276-4741%282004%29024%5B0179%3ATFARIJ%5D2.0.CO%3B2