Wooden Standing Statue of Shaka Nyorai

What This Statue Is

The statue is a wooden standing image of Shakyamuni Buddha — the historical Buddha — made in the technique known as yosegi-zukuri, in which multiple blocks of carved Japanese cypress (hinoki) are joined together to form a single hollow figure. The piece is generally attributed to a sculptor traditionally called the "Kasuga Busshi," and dated by scholars to the late Kamakura period, roughly the early fourteenth century.

Several details set this image apart from typical Japanese Buddhist sculpture. Crystal inlays form the eyes (a Kamakura technique called gyokugan) and the urna, the curl of hair between the brows. The hair itself is rendered as tightly coiled rope, rather than the small bead-like curls common to most Japanese Buddha figures. The robe sweeps across both shoulders in the "open-shouldered" Indian style, and the drapery falls in delicate parallel arcs that follow the contours of the body in concentric semicircles. Behind the statue rises a gilded boat-shaped halo upon which twelve smaller Buddha figures are carved in relief, six on each side.

The Seiryōji Lineage — A Buddha Image That Traveled Three Countries

To understand why this statue looks so unlike a typical Japanese Buddha, one must trace the remarkable history behind its style. It belongs to a category called "Seiryōji-style Shakyamuni" — copies of a famous statue housed at Seiryō-ji temple in the Saga district of Kyoto.

The Seiryō-ji original was brought back from Song-dynasty China in 987 by a Japanese monk named Chōnen, who had traveled to the continent in search of Buddhist scriptures and relics. While in China, Chōnen commissioned a faithful copy of an extraordinary Buddha statue believed to have originated in India during the lifetime of the historical Buddha himself — a relic created, according to legend, by King Udayana so that worshippers might continue to behold the Buddha's likeness in his absence. The statue was therefore venerated as the "Three-Country-Transmitted Shakyamuni," carrying with it the spiritual lineage of India, China, and Japan, and as a "living body" image believed to embody the actual presence of the Buddha.

From the late Heian period onward, and especially in the Kamakura period, devotees commissioned faithful copies of this revered statue. Roughly a hundred such Seiryōji-style images survive across Japan today, and the image at Fukusenji is regarded as a representative example. Its rope-coiled hair, parallel drapery, and exposed wood surface all preserve the ancient Indian-Gandhāran feel of the original, while its crystal eyes and refined finish reveal the unmistakable touch of a Kamakura-period sculptor.

Why This Statue Was Designated an Important Cultural Property

The statue was designated a National Important Cultural Property on August 17, 1916 (Taishō 5), making it one of the earlier nationally recognized treasures in Ibaraki Prefecture. Several factors underlie this recognition.

First, it is an unusually well-preserved example of Seiryōji-style sculpture in eastern Japan, where such images are rarer than in the Kyoto-Nara region where the style flourished. Second, its life-sized scale, refined carving, and faithful reproduction of the foreign features of the Seiryō-ji original mark it as a work of considerable artistic ambition — not a provincial imitation but a serious devotional commission. Third, the statue survived a major fire that devastated Fukusenji in the early Edo period and destroyed many of the temple's other treasures. That this image came through intact, together with its gilded halo bearing twelve subsidiary Buddhas, lends it both historical and devotional significance.

Highlights for the Visitor

For travelers fortunate enough to view the statue during its annual public opening, several features reward close attention. The rope-coiled hair, called rahotsu, is so meticulously carved that it almost suggests woven cord rather than sculpted wood. The robe's drapery, falling in concentric semicircular waves, recalls flowing water and gives the figure a strange feeling of motion, even at rest. The bare cypress surface, untreated with gold or lacquer, allows the natural grain of the wood to show through — a deliberate choice that connects this work to the older "sandalwood image" tradition imported from the Asian continent.

The halo is itself worth a long look. Its twelve relief Buddha figures, arranged six on each side of the central image, transform the entire composition into a small mandala of Buddhist cosmology. The whole piece — statue and halo together — gives the impression of an entire universe of awakening, compressed into the hush of a small temple in the Ibaraki countryside.

Visitors to Fukusenji should not miss the temple's main hall either, where the ceiling bears a powerful dragon painting attributed to the celebrated Edo-period painter Tani Bunchō. Local legend holds that during a drought, farmers sprinkled water on the painting as a rainmaking prayer — and the rains came.

Other Treasures at Fukusenji

The temple safeguards a second remarkable cultural property: an ink painting on paper depicting the lay Buddhist sage Vimalakīrti (Yuima in Japanese), executed by the Yuan-dynasty Chinese Chan monk Yintuoluo (Indara). The painting carries an inscription by the Southern Song-dynasty Linji-school monk Wuzhun Shifan and was recognized as a Prefectural Cultural Property in 2005. In the Genroku era of 1692, the famous Mito-domain lord Tokugawa Mitsukuni — known to Japanese popular culture as "Mito Kōmon" — visited Fukusenji, admired this painting, and personally arranged for its restoration. His written record of the visit survives.

Visiting Fukusenji

Fukusenji sits in a wooded hollow in the Okura district of Hokota City, on the eastern edge of Ibaraki Prefecture not far from the Pacific coast. The temple's distinctive setting — accessed by descending a long sloping path into a basin ringed by hills — is responsible for its nickname "Anadera," meaning "Hole Temple."

The Shakyamuni statue itself is normally kept in the temple's treasure hall and is not on regular daily display. It is opened to the general public once each year, on April 8, the day Japanese Buddhists traditionally celebrate the birth of the Buddha (Hana Matsuri, the Flower Festival). Visitors who wish to see the statue should plan their visit around this date. At other times of year, travelers can still walk the temple grounds, view the main hall and its Tani Bunchō dragon ceiling, and enjoy the quiet, thickly forested setting. Visitors who wish to make special arrangements outside the April 8 opening should inquire with the temple in advance.

Around Hokota City

Fukusenji makes a rewarding stop on a wider tour of eastern Ibaraki. The city of Hokota faces the Pacific Ocean and Lake Kitaura, and its rural landscape combines pine-shaded coastline, agricultural plains famous for melons and sweet potatoes, and scattered Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines of considerable historical interest. The Hokota coastline, with its long beaches and the dramatic cliffs at Ohaisahama, lies a short drive to the east. To the south, the Kashima district offers Kashima Shrine, one of the oldest and most prestigious Shinto sanctuaries in eastern Japan. Combining these sites with a visit to Fukusenji gives the traveler a generous taste of the cultural and natural richness of this often-overlooked corner of the Kanto region.