研究資料　善光寺式阿弥陀如来像ならびに観音菩薩像=Material for Art Research: Copy Figures of the Central Worship Images at Zenkoji

津田徹英 (著)=Tsuda, Tetsuei (au.)

Author

津田徹英 (著)=Tsuda, Tetsuei (au.)

Source

美術研究=Bijutsu Kenkyu : the Journal of Art Studies=ビジュツケンキュウ

Volume

v.391

Date

2007.03.26

Pages

82 - 91

Publisher

東京文化財研究所=National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo

Publisher Url

http://www.tobunken.go.jp/index_j.html

Location

東京, 日本 [Tokyo, Japan]

Content type

期刊論文=Journal Article

Language

日文=Japanese

Keyword

阿彌陀佛

Abstract

As is well known, during Japan's medieval period copy figures were made of the Amida Triad sculpture enshrined as the central worship images at Zenkôji temple in Nagano. In considering these copy sculptures, the author noted the article in volume 4 of the Zenkôji engi [Zenkôji Tales] edited and compiled at the end of the 14th century. In particular, when the sculpture was created in 1221, it was copied in painted form, and wooden sculptural copies were made from that painted image. Then the wood figure was used as a model for the casting of bronze images. In reference to this process, the Avalokitesvara figure (h. 30 cm) that has been traditionally handed down at the Tôkôin temple in Chiba is thought to have been a wooden model of the Zenkôji type. Given the presence of a wood model, it must be considered that numerous bronze or iron copies could have been cast from it.
In fact, judging from the measurements, which are almost exactly the same, and the handling of the drapery folds, several examples cast from the same model can be confirmed.
For example, the Amida figures at Gukyôji in Ibaragi prefecture, Ryûgeji in Kanagawa prefecture, and at Shinzenkôji in Chiba prefecture are one such group of images. Other figures created from a different model than that seen in the three figures mentioned above include those at Ryûkôji and Tensôji in Saitama prefecture, a figure in the Yagi district of Nagano prefecture, one at Daijôji in Tochigi prefecture, a Tokyo National Museum image, one at Shinganji in Ibaragi prefecture, a figure at Kumano Shrine in Fukushima prefecture and finally one at Enkôji in Chiba prefecture.
Among these images, the Tokyo National Museum figure has an inscription dated to 1254, while the Enkôji figure has an inscription dated to 1309. These dates indicate that these copy images were not all cast together at the same time.
Also, while the works were, in a sense, cast from the same model, they each exhibit subtle differences. Strictly speaking they were not all cast from the same model. Some of these figures were cast from an earlier cast of the figure. Possibly this was a case of being able to copy the earlier figure and hand on, undiminished, its divine nature.
The existence of two figures cast from the same model, those cast in bronze and those cast in iron, must be noted. Given that the original image, the Zenkôji main figure, has been transmitted as a “gilt bronze Buddha,” there must have been a particular meaning in the casting of iron copies of such a figure.
The reasons for such iron figures are the undeniable facts that casting techniques in iron had improved, and that iron products were beginning to spread amongst the common people of the day. At the time, the common people of the day used such iron implements as plows, hoes, pots and pans. When these were damaged, aged or became unusable, it is possible that they were donated for reuse in the casting of Buddhist images.
Further, given the effects of casting, figures cast in iron have more sharply defined shapes than those cast in bronze, and this may be another factor that must be considered in discussing why iron was used in the creation of copy figures.

ISSN

00219088 (P)

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