The Rockefeller Collection in Focus: Jizo Bosatsu Asia Society
Home Jizo and the Six Realms The Japanese Temple Complex Making a Buddhist Image Inside the Image
Inside the Image: Inscriptions and Offerings Dating the Jizo Bosatsu Sculpture
Kasuga Shrine Mandala
Interior of Jizo Bosatsu, front half

An incantation in Sanskrit is written down the center; Jizo’s Sanskrit “seed syllable” is repeated on either side. Prayers in Chinese characters (kanji, used in written Japanese) appear at the top and bottom of the left side.

Source of image: Horiguchi, Sozan. Jizo Bosatsu Ryuzo [A Standing Image of Jizo Bosatsu]. Tokyo: Geienjunrei-sha Co., 1955.
Buddhist sculptures in Japan often contain more than meets the eye. The practice of recording inscriptions on the interior surfaces of an image, or of enclosing sacred objects or texts inside the work, began as early as the eighth or ninth century but remained rare until the second half of the Heian period (794–1185), when more advanced techniques of wood sculpture allowed for the hollowing out of the figure. The spaces thus created provided surfaces for inscriptions and room for offerings, and the inclusion of such writings and objects inside sculptures became widespread in the Kamakura period (1185–1333).

Inscriptions inside images take several forms. Incantations in Sanskrit and a variety of prayers, often directed to the divinity represented by the image, are commonly found; other inscriptions include information on the production of the work, such as the date of its dedication, the temple or hall where it would be installed, and the names of the commissioner, sculptor, attending priests, and individuals who supported its creation. In the case of this Jizo sculpture, prayers and names are recorded inside. A standard Sanskrit incantation and Jizo’s “seed syllable”—the Sanskrit letter representing the bodhisattva—are accompanied by invocations of Jizo and Kasuga Gongen Daimyojin, a term for the associated divinities of Kasuga Shrine and the great temple Kofukuji in Nara. Although no dates are given, Zen’en (1197–1258) is listed as the sculptor of the work, and the names of supporters include two noted Kofukuji priests, further indicating a connection between the image and the temple. A 1955 report on restoration work performed on the sculpture, before it entered the Rockefeller Collection, states that one thousand tiny figures of Jizo were contained, amazingly, inside the image; their whereabouts today are unknown.