The deities Indra, and Brahma

Brahma and Indra are Hindu gods who were incorporated into Buddhist mythology as attendants of the Buddha. In Japan, where they are known as Bonten (right) and Taishakuten (left), the pair typically appear as attendants to Shakyamuni (Shaka), the historical Buddha. The statues shown here were made in the eighth century, when iconographic and stylistic models from China were carefully followed in Japan’s capital, then located at Nara.

The hollow dry lacquer technique used to make the statues involved creating a clay core around wooden supports, then layering lacquer-coated hemp cloth on the damp surface. Once dry, the lacquer shell was cut and the clay core removed. The surfaces were detailed using a lacquer and sawdust paste, then the entire surface was painted. This laborious method produced durable yet lightweight works with naturalistic modeling and color. Yet perhaps because of its expense, the technique was abandoned after about a hundred years, making such sculptures rare today.

Modern records about this pair go back to the early 1900s, when Kofukuji, a prominent Nara temple, sought to raise funds for temple repairs by selling some of its treasures. Masuda Takashi (1848–1938), a wealthy industrialist and collector, acquired the statues, then heavily damaged. By 1927 the pair had been expertly restored using the dry lacquer method. The Masuda family kept them until 1965, when Avery Brundage (1887–1975) acquired them for the museum. Scholars have debated the degree to which the modern restoration preserves the original appearance of the statues. Most recently, scientific testing and study have raised the possibility that the statues’ heads, which are missing (Taishakuten) and heavily damaged (Bonten) in a photo from the time of the Kofukuji sale, might have been restored in part with original fragments from the statues, separately preserved at the temple. Further research is necessary to confirm these findings.

Our dating of the statues is based on similarities to a notable set of hollow dry lacquer statues (the eight devas and ten disciples) made for Kofukuji’s West Golden Hall between 733 and 738, and a much larger dry lacquer Bonten and Taishakuten pair owned by Todaiji temple in Nara and dating to the mid-eighth century.