A Buddha with Organs Inside
In 1954, a survey team lifted a panel from the back of a wooden Buddha at Seiryō-ji in western Kyoto and found a set of human organs inside the hollow body. They were not real, but models sewn from colored silk: a heart, lungs, liver, and intestines, stitched and stuffed to sit where they would in a living person. Nuns from a temple in Taizhou, on the Chinese coast, had made them nearly a thousand years earlier and placed them so the statue would not merely depict the Buddha but stand in for his living body.
The figure that holds them is the Standing Statue of Shaka Nyorai (Śākyamuni), the principal image of Seiryō-ji and one of Japan's National Treasures. It is roughly 160 centimeters tall, close to a person's height, and was carved in China in 985 during the Northern Song dynasty. The monk Chōnen, who had traveled from Tōdai-ji in Nara to study in Song China, commissioned it and carried it home across the sea.
Visitors know the temple by its older nickname, Saga Shakadō, the Shaka Hall of Saga. It sits a short walk north of the Arashiyama riverfront, on the grounds of what was once a Heian-period nobleman's villa.
The Image That Crossed Three Countries
Chōnen did not want an ordinary Buddha. He set out to reproduce a specific, legendary one. Buddhist tradition held that the very first image of the Buddha was carved from sandalwood during his lifetime, at the wish of King Udayana, who longed to see the Buddha while he was away preaching. That original was believed to have passed from India to China, and Chōnen meant to bring a faithful copy on to Japan. For this reason the statue is called the Shaka of three countries, transmitted through India, China, and Japan, and it is venerated as a copy of the sandalwood "auspicious image."
The carving itself was fast. An inscription on the back board records that two sculptors from Taizhou, the brothers Zhang Yanjiao and Zhang Yanxi, began the work on the twenty-first day of the seventh month of 985 and finished it on the eighteenth day of the eighth month, under four weeks. The statue is cut from cherry wood rather than the sandalwood of the legend, though it preserves the strange, foreign look its makers were copying.
What sealed its status, though, was what came out of it in 1954. Alongside the silk organs, the survey recovered sutras, prints, dated documents, and personal relics that Chōnen had sealed inside, including a written note thought to have been tied to his own umbilical cord. The documents explain who paid for the carving and why, and they let scholars date the work precisely. The silk organs are often described as the oldest surviving anatomical models in the world, valued by historians of medicine as much as by historians of art. The statue was named an Important Cultural Property in 1901 and raised to National Treasure in 1955; in 2017 the entire set of deposited objects was itself designated a National Treasure.
What to Look For
The first thing that registers is the hair. Instead of the rows of snail-shell curls common on Japanese Buddhas, the head is wrapped in what looks like coiled rope, a Chinese convention that copyists in Japan later struggled to imitate. The robe covers both shoulders and falls in tight concentric arcs, ripple after ripple, a pattern that reads as water more than cloth. The right hand is raised with the palm out and the left hand lowers in a giving gesture, the paired mudras of reassurance and granting wishes. Look closely at the eyes and ears and you can see crystal set into the wood.
A later Japanese hand left its mark too. A repair inscription on the lotus base records that the great Kamakura-period sculptor Kaikei restored the image in 1218, more than two centuries after it arrived. The figure that became known across medieval Japan as the "Seiryō-ji style" was copied so widely that dozens of these distinctive Buddhas survive in temples around the country.
The statue is not on view year round. It is opened to worshippers in spring (April and May) and autumn (October and November), the same seasons when the temple's treasure house, the Reihōkan, opens its doors. Reproductions of the silk organs are displayed there, so even outside the rare moments when the body is opened, you can see what the figure has carried for a millennium.
Around the Temple
Seiryō-ji rewards a slow visit. A tall Niō gate marks the entrance at the end of Nagatsuji street, and the wide precincts hold a two-storied pagoda, an Amida hall, and a sutra repository. The main hall you enter today was rebuilt in 1701, funded in part by Keishōin, mother of the fifth Tokugawa shogun. Two more National Treasures live here: a seated Amida triad linked to Minamoto no Tōru, the Heian courtier often named as a model for the hero of The Tale of Genji, and a set of paintings of the sixteen arhats that Chōnen is said to have brought back along with the Buddha.
The temple is an easy walk from the Arashiyama district, so it pairs well with the bamboo grove, the Ōigawa river, and the quieter garden temples nearby such as Hōkyō-in. If your timing is loose, the March fire festival here, the Otaimatsu, is counted among Kyoto's three great fire rituals, and the temple's masked Buddhist farce, the Saga Dai Nenbutsu Kyōgen, is performed in spring and autumn.
The nearest rail stop is Saga-Arashiyama on the JR Sagano Line, about ten minutes on foot; the Randen tram's Arashiyama stop is a slightly longer walk. City buses stop close to the gate at Saga Shakadō-mae.
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Q&A
- Can I actually see the National Treasure statue?
- Yes, but only in season. The main image is opened to the public in spring (April–May) and autumn (October–November). Outside those months the main hall is open but the statue itself is generally not on view, so plan your visit around the opening periods if seeing it is the goal.
- Are the silk organs on display?
- The originals were returned inside the statue. Reproductions are shown in the Reihōkan treasure house, which opens during the same spring and autumn periods. A combined ticket covers the main hall and the treasure house.
- How much does entry cost and what are the hours?
- The grounds are free to enter. The main hall is 500 yen for adults, and a combined main hall and treasure house ticket during special openings is 900 yen for adults. Opening hours are generally 9:00 to 16:00, with no regular closing day, though hours may extend during the special opening seasons. Confirm current details on the temple's site before visiting.
- Why does the Buddha look different from most Japanese statues?
- Because it is Chinese, not Japanese. It was carved in Song-dynasty China in 985 and copies an even older Indian prototype, so the coiled hair, the robe over both shoulders, and the rippling concentric folds follow conventions rarely seen on images made in Japan.
- How do I get there from central Kyoto?
- Take the JR Sagano Line to Saga-Arashiyama station and walk about ten minutes north. The Randen tram to Arashiyama and several city bus routes also serve the area; the closest bus stop is Saga Shakadō-mae, a few minutes from the gate.
Basic Information
| Name | Standing Statue of Shaka Nyorai (by Zhang Yanjiao and Zhang Yanxi; brought to Japan by Chōnen; enshrined in the main hall) |
|---|---|
| Category | Sculpture; National Treasure |
| Count | 1 image (with 4 former tabernacle door panels designated as附 /附属) |
| Date | Made 985 (Northern Song, China); repair inscription dated 1218 |
| Maker | Zhang Yanjiao and Zhang Yanxi of Taizhou; restored by Kaikei in 1218 |
| Material / height | Cherry wood; approximately 160 cm |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property 1901.08.02; National Treasure 1955.06.22 (deposited objects designated National Treasure 2017.09.15) |
| Owner / location | Seiryō-ji (Saga Shakadō), Saga Shakadō Fujinoki-chō 46, Ukyō-ku, Kyoto |
| Viewing | Main image opened in spring (Apr–May) and autumn (Oct–Nov); treasure house open in the same seasons |
References
- National Database of Designated Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/201/258
- e-Museum (National Institutes for Cultural Heritage): Shaka Nyorai, Seiryō-ji style
- https://emuseum.nich.go.jp/detail?langId=ja&content_base_id=100065
- Nara National Museum: Shaka Nyorai Standing Statue (Seiryō-ji style)
- https://www.narahaku.go.jp/collection/887-0.html
- Seiryō-ji (Saga Shakadō) official site, visitor information
- https://seiryoji.or.jp/precincts.html
Last verified: 2026.06.07