Creating Unkei-style Buddhist Statues [Episode 19] Reconsidering the Rock Pedestal
I went to the Tokyo National Museum's "Kukai and the Treasures of Shingon" exhibition.
Before taking photos in the style of Asukuen, I decided to make one more adjustment.
It is repainting the rock pedestal that serves as the base for the Buddhist statue.
The trigger was my visit to the special exhibition "Kukai and the Treasures of Shingon," held in the summer of 2026 at the Tokyo National Museum to commemorate the 1250th anniversary of the birth of Kobo Daishi.
The exhibition focused on National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties from various Shingon sects, and the highlight was the gathering of secret Buddhist statues from all over the country. However, my purpose was to see the standing statues of Jinja Daishō and Shukongōjin from Kongōbu-ji Temple. Both are masterpieces by Kaikei.
Actually, I should have seen these two statues at the special exhibition "Kaikei: The Form of Buddha that Captivated the Japanese" held at the Nara National Museum in the spring of 2017, but I don't remember them at all.
It's quite troublesome.
The reason I felt like seeing them again without being discouraged was that I couldn't stop thinking about the rock pedestals.
The rock pedestal of the model is painted as follows.
For the rock pedestal in the style of the Kōfuku-ji Chūkon-dō Hall, I wanted to give it the look of withered logs, so I painted it in bright brown tones like matte sand.
In fact, the pedestals of the Four Heavenly Kings statues at the special exhibition "Unkei: Prayer Space - Kōfuku-ji Hokuendō Hall," held at the Tokyo National Museum in the autumn of 2025, gave the impression of roughly assembled withered logs, and the exhibition catalog also stated they were "later additions from the Meiji period"*1, so I wanted to create an atmosphere of combined new materials.
On the other hand, for the rock pedestal of the statue painted in the Kaijūsen-ji Temple style, as an expression of the state before weathering, I painted the lacquer base in glossy black, and the logs above it were finished in dark brown tones such as semi-matte mahogany and red-brown, keeping them in a state that has not weathered much.
However, since the statue itself in the Kaijūsen-ji Temple style is brightly colored, I had always been concerned that the rock pedestal might also have been colored to some extent rather than just being a simple brown tone.
At that time, information about the special exhibition "Kukai and the Treasures of Shingon" began to be introduced in various media, and in the photos of Jinja Daishō and Shukongōjin that I happened to see, I noticed that green coloring remained on the rock pedestals.
Thinking I had to see this for myself, I went out eagerly, and indeed, magnificent verdigris and ultramarine remained.
The motifs of the rock pedestals are "waves" that Jinja Daishō is undulating on, and "rocks" that are rugged for Shukongōjin, but if both the waves and rocks were colored with verdigris and ultramarine, couldn't the "logs" of the Four Heavenly Kings of Kōfuku-ji Chūkon-dō Hall also be green or blue?
So, I tried painting it like this.
This time, it is truly complete.
Next time, really next time, I will take photos in the style of Asukuen.
Actually, I am already in the process of trial and error, and this time I used one of those shots as a teaser in the header image.
*1 Since the core material of the rock pedestal is from the time of construction, the view that it was repaired in the Meiji period but is not a later addition has recently become mainstream.
[Episode 20] Gallery of Works continues to
[Episode 18] I want to take photos in the style of Asukuen returns to
[Episode 1] First, let's restore the "Jikokuten Ancient Coloring" returns to