Gangoji Temple
Main Image Seated Amida Nyorai Category Nyorai (Tathagata)
Impression TagsPeacefulnessDepthRefinement
DescriptionThe Important Cultural Property wooden seated Amida Nyorai is preserved in Gangoji Temple's Horinkan Treasure Hall. Dating to around the middle of the 10th century in the Heian period, this half-jo-roku image was carved from timber thought to be kaya, with some areas modeled in clay and finished with gold leaf. Both hands form the welcoming gesture associated with the johin-gesho form, and the statue displays the powerful, weighty style characteristic of 10th-century Buddhist sculpture in Nara. One theory identifies it as the former principal image of the pagoda at Gangoji's subsidiary Zenjoin, later transferred in the medieval period; it is also said to have remained in the Gokurakudo until the Meiji era. It can now be viewed in the Horinkan.
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