Shotoku Taishi

Takamura Koun was appointed professor of the woodcarving department at the Tokyo Fine Arts School at the recommendation of Okakura Tenshin. He was also charged with producing the wooden models for the statues Lord Kusunoki and Saigo Takamori, which the School had been requested to make.

This statue was mede and donated by Koun as the principal statue for the Jogu Taishi (Prince Shotoku) Festival sponsored by the Kokka Club, the social organ of the art community at the time. Its consecration ceremony took place at the Prince Shotoku Festival held in the large auditorium of the Tokyo Fine Arts School in June 1911. A journal Koun kept at the time states that he asked Sugawara Daizaburo, a student of his who worked in Nara restoring Buddhist statues, to send him materials, including photographs of a statue of Prince Shotoku and its measurements, and reffered to these as he made the statue. It also tells that Koun was able to deliver the finished work in only a little over two months after the Club’s decision to have it made. Koun’s model was the Fujiwara period statue of Prince Shotoku of the Horyu-ji Shoryo-in Hall, and the fact that the Prince opens his mouth slightly, exposing his teeth, indicates that he is preaching a Buddhist sutra. Koun, following in the tradition of Edo Buddhist sculptors, revived traditional wood carving techniques in the Meiji era. At the same time, however, he was inspired by the realistic style of Western painting that “was lifelike and close to the real thing,” and put much effort into the study of sketching from life as well. While modeled after a masterpiece of antique sculpture, this work, too, has incorporated a true-to-life realism in areas like the Prince’s face, demonstrating the solid working technique of an artist who brimmed with a progressive spirit. (Writer : Rie Yokoyama Source : Selected Masterpieces from The University Art Museum, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music: Grand Opening Exhibition, The University Art Museum, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, 1999)