Todaiji Temple Shunjodo Hall: Master Shunjobo Chogen

JAPAN, Nara; Kamakura period

Shunjobo Chogen was a Pure Land master who once studied in the Vajrayana Shingon school. The main halls of Todaiji Temple were destroyed by fire in 1180, and he was responsible for the fundraising to restore them. He is credited with the temple’s reconstruction. This masterpiece of Kamakura portraiture is thought to date from soon after Chogen’s passing in the year 1206. It was listed as a Japanese National Treasure in 1951.
The life-size statue is assembled from several pieces of cypress wood and painted. It depicts a very old man with sunken eye sockets and only one functional eye. The cheeks and neck are deeply wrinkled and the corners of the mouth droop, yet the figure is sustained by a strong will. He sits cross-legged in a loose monastic robe, counting the prayer beads held at his chest. A work of realism and impressive characterization, it is open for public viewing once every year.