The Bodhisattva Jizō

Jizō Bosatsu (Sanskrit: Bodhisattva Kshitigarbha) is an enlightened being who, out of compassion, has chosen to lead others along the Buddhist path. In Japan he is best known for rescuing souls from hell and for protecting children. Adhering to traditional iconography, Jizō is portrayed as a youthful monk with gentle features, a shaved head, and wearing a patchwork surplice (kesa) over his robe. He wields a monk’s staff (shakujō) in his right hand—which he rattles to awaken humans from their delusions—and in his left hand holds a jewel of wisdom that grants all wishes. His long earlobes and the urna on his forehead are symbols of Buddhist enlightenment.

The statue, as was standard for the period, was constructed with several blocks of Japanese cypress (hinoki) employing the joined wood-block technique (yosegi-zukuri). The figure is hollow, and the rock-crystal eyes were inserted from inside of the head. Some sections of the surface are unpainted; some are polychromed; and, most dramatically, the monk’s vestment (kesa) is meticulously decorated with cut-gold leaf (kirikane) and gold paint (kindei).

This sculpture is one of only three surviving works on which the name of the sculptor Intan is recorded. In this case, Intan’s name appears on a wooden tenons used to slot the bodhisattva’s feet into the lotus pedestal base, and states that it was completed on the 24th day of the 9th month of Shōō 4 (1291) The name of the primary patron in the inscription is listed as Kyōganbō Daisōzu [Senior high priest] Rin’ei, who is believed to have been a monk of Kōfukuji. The other patron, Jitsu’ei Enshunbō, because he shares the same “ei” character as Rin’ei, was probably affiliated with Kōfukuji as well. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that the statue was commissioned for a subtemple of Kōfukuji and remained there until modern times.[1] Another work associated with Intan, a seated figure of the same bodhisattva, now designated as an Important Cultural Property, belongs to the temple Jōki’in at Mount Kōya and was carved by a team of three sculptors (see inscription below). The monk-sculptor Intan’s name also appears in a statue traditionally said to be Gūze Kannon at Akishinodera, an eighth-century temple in Nara, whose Kamakura-period main hall is designated as a National Treasure.

Biographies of Buddhist sculptors of all periods of premodern history are fragmentary at best, but documentary evidence suggests that Intan was a monk of Kofukuji Temple. The use of “In” 院indicates he was affiliated with the In lineage of sculptors. Since the “tan” 湛of his name is the same character used by Tankei湛慶, the son of Unkei 運慶, a celebrated sculptor in his own right, we can situate Intan as a sculptor who saw himself as heir to the techniques and styles of the Kei school in Nara, but also as part of a new lineage in the late thirteenth century.

As mentioned above, Intan was also one of the sculptors of the seated Jizō at the Jōki’in on Mount Koya, dated three years later, in 1294, which has been registered as an Important Cultural Property. The inscription on the Jōki’in statue indicates that Inshū, who had the honorary Buddhist rank for artists of Hōin (Seal of the Law), had three assistants who collaborated with him on the sculpture: Intan and Inshō, both with the rank of Hōgen (Eye of the Law), and Inryō, with the rank of Hokkyō (Bridge of the Law). That work is signed, dated, and inscribed to the 24th day of the 9th month of the second year of the Einin era (1294) (大仏師法印院修作者、法眼院湛、法眼院昌、法橋院亮、永仁二年甲午九月二十四日).

Based on what we know of Jizō worship in the Kamakara period, this statue may have been worshipped as an independent work. Jizō is portrayed here with his head tilted downwards as if descending from the heavens to welcome a Buddhist believer on his or her deathbed (raigō). Under the influence of a Buddhist theory of the decline of the Buddhist Law (mappō), believed to have begun in 1052, and related notions about the diminishment of an individual’s capability to achieve salvation by his or her own efforts, there emerged a trend in Japan toward more streamlined or selective religious practices aimed at bringing about salvation. Thus, it became increasingly common for the exclusive worship of one deity over others, or in other words, the adoption of a personal savior. The iconography of welcoming descent thus came to be employed for the representation of certain bodhisattvas as individual figures—notably Jizō or Kannon (representing compassion). By the late thirteenth century, when this sculpture was made, the representation of Jizō in solitary welcoming descent (Jizō dokuson raigō), became very popular in Nara, through the dedication of monks of the powerful Kōfukuji, the family temple of the Fujiwara clan. All activities of the temple were closely intertwined with its partner Shinto institution, the Kasuga Shrine. (Discussed in in Hank Glassman, The Face of Jizō: Image and Cult in Medieval Japanese Buddhism, 2012).

Fortunately, we have known provenance for this work from the day it was made in 1291. It remained at Kofukuji in Nara until 1906, when the temple sold it, among other Buddhist sculptures, to the businessman and collector Masuda Don’ō to raise funds for temple renovations.[2] It appears that Masuda’s heirs consigned this work to the highly esteemed gallery Setsu Gatōdō in Tokyo, and the statue was acquired there by Samuel Josefowitz in 1962. Harry Packard, the Japan-based collector and dealer who sold his collection of Japanese art to The Met in 1975, served as an advisor to Josefowitz on his purchase trips to Kyoto and Tokyo.

—John T. Carpenter, updated Sept. 18, 2024

Notes:

1. Mizuno Keizaburō comp., Nihon chōkokushi kiso shiryō shūsei: Kamakura jidai zōzō meikihen (Primary Sources on the History of Japanese Sculpture: Inscriptions on Kamakura Period Sculptures), vol. 14 (Tokyo: Chūōkōron Bijutsu Shuppan, 2018). kaisetsu volume, no. 403 pp. 154-56; pls. 403.1-12 (commentary by Nedachi Kensuke, based on research by Nedachi, Seya Takayuki, and Seya Ai).
2. Yamaguchi Ryūsuke and Miyazaki Motoko宮崎幹子. “Meiji jidai no Kōfukuji ni okeru butsuzō no idō to genshozaichi ni tsuite: Kōfukuji shozō no koshashin o mochiita shiryōgakuteki kenkyū” (The Transfer of Buddhist Sculptures from Kōfukuji in the Meiji Era and Their Locations Today: Source-study Research Conducted Using Old Photographs at Kōfukuji). Museum, no. 676 (October 2018). See also Yamaguchi Ryūsuke, “Kojinzō Jizō bosatsu zō (A Jizō Bodhisattava Statue from a Private Collection) Museum (Journal of the Tokyo National Museum), no. 687 (August 2020).

Signature: Dated by a brush inscription on the wooden tenons attached to the bottom of the feet, to the 24th date of the 9th month of the Shōō Era (1291 A.D.) and signed by the sculptor.

Purchased from Setsu Gato, Tokyo on January 8, 1962 by Tart Limited Partnership.

[ Kōfukuji Temple , Nara, until 1906; sold to Masuda Don'ō]; Masuda Don'ō 益田鈍翁 Japanese, Japan, 1906–38; by descent, sold to Setsu Gatōdō; [ Setsu Gatōdō Co., Ltd. , Tokyo, until 1962; sold to Josefowitz) Josefowitz,; Samuel Josefowitz , Lausanne, Switzerland (by descent in the Josefowitz family, 1962–2023; Masterpieces from the Collection of Sam Josefowitz: A Lifetime of Discovery and Scholarship, Christie's, London, October 13, 2023, lot 32, as "A wood sculpture of a standing jizo bosatsu (bodhisattva kshitigarbha)"; to MMA)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Arts of Japan Galleries," February 2–July 28, 2013.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Arts of Japan," August 17, 2013–January 12, 2014.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Celebrating the Arts of Japan: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," October 20, 2015–May 14, 2017.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Poetry of Nature: Edo Paintings from the Fishbein-Bender Collection," February 27, 2018–January 21, 2019.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Anxiety and Hope in Japanese Art," April 8, 2023–July 14, 2024.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Three Perfections: Japanese Poetry, Calligraphy, and Painting from the Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection," August 10, 2024–August 3, 2025.

Mizuno Keisaburō 水野敬三郎. Nihon chōkoku shi kiso shiryō shūsei: Kamakura jidai: zōzō meiki hen (Primary Sources on the History of Japanese Sculpture: Inscriptions on Kamakura Period Sculptures) , vol. 14 (two volumes, 日本彫刻史基礎資料集成 : 鎌倉時代 : 造像銘記篇. vol. 14, Tokyo: Chūō Kōron Bijutsu Shuppan, 2018, pp. 154–56, cat. no. 403, pls. 403.1–12.

Yamaguchi Ryūsuke, and Miyazaki Motoko. "Meiji jidai no Kōfukuji ni okeru butsuzō no idō to genshozaichi ni tsuite: Kōfukuji shozō no koshashin o mochiita shiryōgakuteki kenkyū” 明治時代の興福寺における仏像の移動と現所在地について―興福寺所蔵の古写真をもちいた史料学的研究 (The Transfer of Buddhist Sculptures from Kōfukuji in the Meiji Era and Their Locations Today: Source-study Research Conducted Using Old Photographs at Kōfukuji)." Museum, no. 676 (October 2018).

Yamaguchi Ryūsuke. ""Kojinzō Jizō bosatsu zō 個人蔵地蔵菩薩立像" (A Jizō Bodhisattava Statue from a Private Collection). Museum (Journal of the Tokyo National Museum) no. 687 (August 2020)