Not quite so uncomplaining portrait model? This is one of the two guards at the entrance to Sugimotodera, apparently whittled in 1223 (by Unkei, one of the most famous Buddha statue sculptors of the Nara Period, and often referred to as Japanese Michelangelo - says the interweb).
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Posted By Blogger to jules' pics at 3/01/2011 04:47:00 AM
3 comments:
If you mean periods of Japanese history, the year 1223 is in the Kamakura period. Unkei did mainly work in Nara, but the city was no longer the political capital of Japan.
Well spotted, the incorrect info comes from here. I have emailed the author.
I think jules may have mistaken the date, which is given there as the year Unkei died, not when the statue was carved. But in any case it is not Nara period.
It seems true that the temple was founded in Nara period, as the document at your link says "circa 734".
On the other hand, the years Unkei worked was in (the latest part of) the Heian period and the (early) Kamakura period.
So, the temple had a long history as a outpost of buddhism in a outer rural area for 5 centuries before becoming a part of one of the centers of civilization.
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