Inzō

What inzō means

Inzō, known in English by the Sanskrit word mudra, is the gesture made by the hands and fingers of a Buddhist image to express the nature of that figure's enlightenment or its vow toward living beings. Japanese texts also call it in, shuin or ingei. Because Buddhas are shown in plain monastic robes and tend to look alike, the hand gesture is, together with any object held, one of the main clues to which Buddha a statue or painting represents.

Several gestures recur. In the meditation gesture the hands rest one on the other in the lap; it is common on seated figures of Amida Nyorai. In the welcoming gesture the right hand is raised and the left lowered, and in each hand the thumb touches the index finger; it belongs to standing images of Amida coming to receive the dying and to painted scenes of that descent. The gesture of fearlessness raises the right hand with the palm turned outward to dispel fear, and the gesture of granting wishes lowers a hand with the palm outward; the two are often made together. The wisdom-fist gesture, in which the right hand grips the raised index finger of the left in front of the chest, is particular to Dainichi Nyorai of the Diamond Realm in esoteric Buddhism. In the earth-touching gesture the right hand hangs down with the fingertips reaching toward the ground.

A gesture alone does not settle the identity of a figure. Amida and the Dainichi of the Womb Realm both make the meditation gesture, and the fearlessness and wish-granting pair appears on Shaka as well as on Yakushi Nyorai. Yakushi usually holds a medicine jar in the left palm, and Dainichi is shown as a crowned bodhisattva, so the gesture has to be read together with attributes and dress.

Reading gestures in records and on statues

Official commentaries name the gesture when they describe the figure. For the seated Yakushi at Ninnaji the text notes a medicine jar on the left palm and a right hand raised with the palm forward in the gesture of fearlessness. The commentary on the five wisdom Buddhas at Kongoji states that the central Dainichi makes the wisdom-fist gesture and that the four surrounding Buddhas are based on the fearlessness and wish-granting gestures, and it adds that in the standard mandala imagery Ashuku makes the earth-touching gesture. Commentaries sometimes refer to a statue by its gesture as well: the text on the seated Amida at Engyoji calls it a meditation-gesture Amida.

On site, remember that hands are among the parts most easily lost and replaced. On wooden statues they are usually carved separately and joined at the shoulder or the wrist, and repairs over the centuries may have fitted new ones. When a commentary says that both hands are later replacements, the present gesture may not be the original. Any article that identifies a figure from its hands should check the commentary to see whether the hands are original.