JAPAN, KAMAKURA-NANBOKUCHO PERIOD (14TH CENTURY)

This sculpture depicts the moment at which Shakyamuni achieves his enlightenment at the site of Bodh Gaya in Northeastern India. Shakyamuni was born into the royal Shakya Clan as Gautama Siddhartha in what today is Nepal around 563 BC. Though a crown prince, Prince Siddhartha rejected worldly life as well as all claim to his father’s throne, espoused the religious life, attained enlightenment, preached the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-fold Path, and, on his death at age eighty, c. 483 BC, entered nirvana. The Four Noble Truths and the Eight-fold Path constitute the basic, foundational teachings of Buddhism. His teachings appear in many Buddhist sutras but are best reflected in the Saddharma Pundarika Sutra, known in English as the Lotus Sutra. Since the time of his enlightenment, he has been known as Shakyamuni, or the Lion of the Shakya Clan; as an historical person, he has also come to be known as the Historical Buddha.

The sculpture’s hands are placed in the lap, with the right hand resting on top of the left, the thumbs touching, the fingers extended, and the palms facing upward. This gesture signifies meditation and deep concentration, and also represents the moment Shaka attained enlightenment (satori).

The inscriptions on the back and underside of the sculpture indicate that it may once have been worshipped as the principal deity of Myoden Temple in Nishiosuka-mura in Shimofusa-machi, a small village near the Tone River. A high-ranking priest named Gogaku, perhaps Jakutan Gogaku (?-1754) of Jindai Temple, later acquired the sculpture from Myoden Temple.