Unkei (運慶, 1151 – 1223) was a
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese
sculptorSculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard and/or plastic material, sound, and/or text and or light, commonly stone , metal, glass, or wood. Some sculptures are created directly by finding or carving; others are assembled, built together and fired, welded, molded,...
of the
Kei schoolThe ' was a Japanese school of Buddhist sculpture which emerged in the early Kamakura period . Based in Nara, it was the dominant school in Buddhist sculpture in Japan into the 14th century, and remained influential until the 19th...
, which flourished in the
Kamakura periodThe is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura Shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo....
. He specialized in statues of the
BuddhaSiddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher in the north eastern region of the Indian subcontinent who founded Buddhism. He is regarded by Buddhists as the Supreme Buddha of our age. The time of his birth and death are uncertain: most early 20th-century historians dated his lifetime as c...
and other important Buddhist figures. Unkei's early works are fairly traditional, similar in style to pieces by his father, Kōkei. However, the sculptures he produced for the
Tōdai-ji, is a Buddhist temple complex located in the city of Nara, Japan. Its Great Buddha Hall , the largest wooden building in the world, houses the world's largest statue of the Buddha Vairocana, known in Japanese simply as Daibutsu . The temple also serves as the Japanese headquarters of the Kegon...
in
Narais the capital city of Nara Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan. The city occupies the northern part of Nara Prefecture, directly bordering Kyoto Prefecture...
show a flair for realism different from anything Japan had seen before. Today, Unkei is the best known of the Kei artists, and many art historians consider him its "most distinguished member".
Unkei traveled to
Kamakurais a city located in Kanagawa, Japan, about south-south-west of Tokyo. It used to be also called . Although Kamakura proper is today rather small, it is sometimes considered a former de facto capital of Japan as the seat of the Shogunate and of the Regency during the Kamakura Period...
often to do commissions for high-ranking
samuraiis the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
and administrators of the
shogunateThe Kamakura shogunate was a feudal military dictatorship in Japan headed by the shoguns from 1185 to 1333. It was based in Kamakura...
.
Unkei (運慶, 1151 – 1223) was a
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese
sculptorSculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard and/or plastic material, sound, and/or text and or light, commonly stone , metal, glass, or wood. Some sculptures are created directly by finding or carving; others are assembled, built together and fired, welded, molded,...
of the
Kei schoolThe ' was a Japanese school of Buddhist sculpture which emerged in the early Kamakura period . Based in Nara, it was the dominant school in Buddhist sculpture in Japan into the 14th century, and remained influential until the 19th...
, which flourished in the
Kamakura periodThe is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura Shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo....
. He specialized in statues of the
BuddhaSiddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher in the north eastern region of the Indian subcontinent who founded Buddhism. He is regarded by Buddhists as the Supreme Buddha of our age. The time of his birth and death are uncertain: most early 20th-century historians dated his lifetime as c...
and other important Buddhist figures. Unkei's early works are fairly traditional, similar in style to pieces by his father, Kōkei. However, the sculptures he produced for the
Tōdai-ji, is a Buddhist temple complex located in the city of Nara, Japan. Its Great Buddha Hall , the largest wooden building in the world, houses the world's largest statue of the Buddha Vairocana, known in Japanese simply as Daibutsu . The temple also serves as the Japanese headquarters of the Kegon...
in
Narais the capital city of Nara Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan. The city occupies the northern part of Nara Prefecture, directly bordering Kyoto Prefecture...
show a flair for realism different from anything Japan had seen before. Today, Unkei is the best known of the Kei artists, and many art historians consider him its "most distinguished member".
Career
Unkei traveled to
Kamakurais a city located in Kanagawa, Japan, about south-south-west of Tokyo. It used to be also called . Although Kamakura proper is today rather small, it is sometimes considered a former de facto capital of Japan as the seat of the Shogunate and of the Regency during the Kamakura Period...
often to do commissions for high-ranking
samuraiis the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
and administrators of the
shogunateThe Kamakura shogunate was a feudal military dictatorship in Japan headed by the shoguns from 1185 to 1333. It was based in Kamakura...
. Many extant works are said to be his, but the first that can be attributed to him with any certainty is a
DainichiVairocana Vairocana Vairocana (also Vairochana or Mahāvairocana; Sanskrit: वैरोचन, Bengali: বৈরোচন, Indonesian: Dhyani Buddha Wairocana, Chinese: 大日如來 Dàrì Rúlái or 毘盧遮那佛 Pílúzhēnàfó , Korean: 비로자나불 Birojanabul or 대일여래 Daeil Yeorae, Japanese: Dainichi Nyorai, 大日如来; Tibetan: རྣམ་པར་སྣང་མཛད།...
BuddhaBuddharūpa is the Sanskrit and Pali term used in Buddhism for statues or models of the Buddha.-Commonalities:...
he did in 1176 for the Enjō-ji.
Unkei was a devout
BuddhistBuddhism, as traditionally conceived, is a path of salvation attained through insight into the ultimate nature of reality. It encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha...
, and records from 1183 show that he transcribed two copies of the
Lotus SutraThe Lotus Sutra or Sutra on the White Lotus of the Sublime Dharma is one of the most popular and influential Mahayana sutras in Asia, and the basis on which the Tien Tai and Nichiren sects of Buddhism were established.-History and background:The Lotus Sutra was probably compiled...
with the aid of two
calligrapherCalligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of writing . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...
monks and a woman sponsor named Akomaro. In the works' colophon, Unkei gives the names of all involved in performing the ritual obeisance (
raihai) during the project's duration; the list includes Unkei himself and several members of his school. Unkei further records that he tallied the lines copied at the end of each day and then had devotees bow three times and chant the "august title" (likely
daimokuNam Myōhō Renge Kyō is a mantra that is chanted as the central practice of all forms of Nichiren Buddhism...
) and the
nembutsuNianfo , literally "mindfulness of the Buddha" is a term commonly seen in the Pure Land school of Mahayāna Buddhism. It refers to praise offered to Amitabha Buddha as a devotional act...
for each one. In all, Unkei records that "During the copying, the above persons bowed fifty thousand times and [chanted] the
nenbutsu one hundred thousand times, and the august title of the
Lotus Sutra, one hundred thousand times."
In 1203, Unkei worked with
KaikeiKaikei was a Japanese Busshi of Kamakura period, known alongside Unkei. Because many busshi of the school have a name including kei , his school is called Kei-ha . Kaikei being also called Anna-dabutsu, his style is called Anna-miyou and is known to be intelligent, pictorial and delicate...
, two other master sculptors, and 16 assistants to create two guardian figures for the gates of the Nandaimon (Great South Gate) of
Tōdai-ji, is a Buddhist temple complex located in the city of Nara, Japan. Its Great Buddha Hall , the largest wooden building in the world, houses the world's largest statue of the Buddha Vairocana, known in Japanese simply as Daibutsu . The temple also serves as the Japanese headquarters of the Kegon...
in
Narais the capital city of Nara Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan. The city occupies the northern part of Nara Prefecture, directly bordering Kyoto Prefecture...
. The statues, known as the Kongō Rikishi or
NiōKongōrikishi or Niō are two wrath-filled and muscular guardians of the Buddha, standing today at the entrance of many Buddhist temples in China, Japan and Korea in the form of frightening wrestler-like statues. They are manifestations of the Bodhisattva ' protector deity and are part of the...
, are 26 feet tall. The team finished the figures in 72 days using the
yosegiis a type of traditional Japanese parquetry which originated in Japan’s culturally rich Edo Period. It has been increasingly well reputed in foreign countries. The mosaic work is made by making best use of natural fine grains and textures of wood...
technique of sculpting various pieces of wood separately and then combining them for the finished product.
Sometime between 1208 and 1212, Unkei sculpted a figure of a
Miroku Butsu (
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
:
MaitreyaMaitreya or Metteyya is a future Buddha of this world in Buddhist eschatology. In some Buddhist literature, such as the Amitabha Sutra and the Lotus Sutra, he is referred to as Ajita Bodhisattva....
Buddha) at Tōdai-ji, along with several accompanied figures. These included two
bodhisattvaIn Buddhism, a bodhisattva means either "enlightened existence " or "enlightenment-being" or, given the variant Sanskrit spelling satva rather than sattva, "heroic-minded one for enlightenment ." Another translation is...
, the Shitennō (
Four Heavenly KingsIn the Buddhist faith, the Four Heavenly Kings are four guardian gods, each of whom watches over one cardinal direction of the world. They are collectively named as follows:...
), and a pair of Indian
rakan (Sanskrit:
arhatArhat or arahant , in the sramanic traditions of ancient India , signified a spiritual practitioner who had to use an expression common in the tipitaka "laid down the burden", realising the goal of nirvana, the culmination of the spiritual life...
s) named Muchaku and Seshin. Only the Miroku Butsu and rakan still stand today. After the completion of these works and others at the
Kōfuku-jiis a Buddhist temple in the city of Nara, in Nara prefecture, Japan. The temple is the headquarter of the Hossō school in Japan.-History:Kōfuku-ji has its origin as a temple that was established in 669 by Kagami-no-Ōkimi , the wife of Fujiwara no Kamatari, wishing for her husbands’s recovery from...
, Unkei moved the Kei school's headquarters to
Kyotois a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area....
.
A late 12th century sculpture of
Dainichi Nyōrai*Dainichi Nyorai is the Japanese version of Vairocana, one of the Five Dhyani Buddhas.*Dainichi can be a Japanese name....
, attributed to Unkei, sold at auction at
Christie'sChristie's is a leading art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
on March 18 2008 for US$14.37 million, establishing a new record for Japanese art prices at auction, as well as for Asian art sold in New York.
Style
Unkei's early works are similar in style to those of his father, Kōkei, and contemporary,
KaikeiKaikei was a Japanese Busshi of Kamakura period, known alongside Unkei. Because many busshi of the school have a name including kei , his school is called Kei-ha . Kaikei being also called Anna-dabutsu, his style is called Anna-miyou and is known to be intelligent, pictorial and delicate...
. They are fairly traditional and show a certain delicateness. The works Unkei sculpted around 1210 for the Hokuendō (North Octagonal Hall) at Tōdai-ji, on the other hand, are indicative of his fully developed style. By this time, Unkei had begun to stress realism over tradition and solid, muscular forms over ephemeral, delicate ones.
Unkei's
Miroku Butsu is in the tradition of previous Buddha figures, including those of his father and ultimately
Tori BusshiTori Busshi was a Japanese sculptor active in the late 6th and early 7th century. He was from the Kuratsukuri clan, and his full title was Shiba no Kuratsukuri-be no Obito Tori Busshi ; Busshi is a title meaning "the maker of Buddhist images"...
. Like the works of those sculptors, the Buddha is depicted as seated and backed by an intricate
haloA halo is a ring of light that surrounds a person in art. They have been used in the iconography of many religions to indicate holy or sacred figures, and have at various periods also been used in images of rulers or heroes...
. However, Unkei's work features further strides toward realism. Crystal inlays cause the eyes to shine, and details are carved deeply and in new detail. Furthermore, Unkei's work does not follow the canon of proportions established by
JōchōJōchō , also known as Jōchō Busshi, was a Japanese sculptor of the Heian period. He popularized the yosegi technique of sculpting a single figure out of many pieces of wood, and he redefined the canon used to create Buddhist imagery. His style spread across Japan and defined Japanese sculpture for...
in the
Heian periodThe is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyoto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Confucianism and other Chinese influences were at their height...
. Unkei's figure instead has a long torso that does not match the distance between the figures knees (a style used by sculptors for the preceding 150 years). Despite this, Unkei's Buddha does not look unbalanced or unwieldy. Rather, it is a lifelike Buddha who seems kind and empathic. In essence, Unkei created a new style of sculpture.
This new realism is especially evident in Unkei's non-Buddha statuary. His Kongō Rikishi guardians stand
contrappostoContrapposto is an Italian term used in the visual arts to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs. This gives the figure a more dynamic, or alternatively relaxed appearance...
with dramatic stances. Their musculature, though anatomically incorrect, is well detailed, making them appear to be in mid-movement. These
Niō reflect the warrior lifestyle and samurai ideals to which Unkei was exposed in Kamakura.
Unkei's
rakan figures, Mujaku and Seshin, take this realism to an even higher level, making the figures appear almost portrait-like. Both statues sport priestly vestments that frame their bodies realistically. They stand life-size and alone and are fully sculpted in the round as if intended to be viewed from any angle. Mujaku is depicted as a thin man manipulating some sort of holy, cloth-wrapped object. He appears reserved and reflective. Seshin, in contrast, is depicted in mid conversation, gesturing and speaking, an extroverted counterweight to the solemn Mujaku. The men are shown as specific people, not simply members of a stock type.
Due to the collaborative nature of sculpture in this period, it is difficult to determine exactly how much of this innovation can be credited to Unkei personally. Regardless of who was responsible, this new style was adopted by Unkei's followers and descendants, including his sons
TankeiTankei was a Japanese sculptor of the Kei school, which flourished in the Kamakura period. He was the student of and son of the master sculptor Unkei.-Famous Works:...
, Kōun, Kōben, and Kōshō, and carried on until the mid-Kamakura period. Kōben and Kōshō especially would take Unkei's style to new extremes.