Joruriji Temple: Hayagriva

JAPAN, Kyoto, Kizugawa; Kamakura period

The statue went under restoration during the Meiji period (1868–1912) and an inscription was found inside, which dates it to 1241 and states that Yoken and two other sculptors were its creators. Also inside were 59 figures of Avalokitesvara, including a horse-headed form. The statue was listed as an Important Cultural Property in 1901.
Hayagriva has a horse’s head as an attribute and is counted as a wrathful manifestation of the Bodhisattva in Vajrayana Buddhism. The front and back of the sculpture were made separately and then mortised together. The statue is of the deity’s four-headed, eight-armed form and is backed by a blazing mandorla. There is a vertical eye above the diagonal eyes in the glaring face with its bared fangs. The hair flames upwards from under the tight, horse-crested cap, taking up the mandorla’s pattern. The principal hands are joined in anjali (reverence) mudra and the pair of hands at the bottom open in varada (wish-granting) mudra. The other hands hold ritual implements, two of which are now missing.