BusshiA Busshi (仏師) is a Japanese sculptor specializing in Buddha statues. Chōkai (ja) Chōsei (ja) Eikai (ja) Enkū Ensei (ja) Genkei (ja) Gyōkai (ja) Higo Bettō Jōkei (ja) Inchō (ja) Injo (ja) Inkaku (ja) Inkichi (ja) Inson (ja) Jōchō Jōkaku (ja) Jōkei Kaikei Kakuen (ja) Kakujo (ja) Kōben (ja) Kōkei Kōchō (ja) Kōjo (ja) Kochi no Obinari (ja) Kōshō (ja) Kōshō (ja) Kōun (ja) Kuninaka no Kimimaro (ja) Matsumoto Myōkei (ja) Myōen (ja) Raijo (ja) Seichō (ja) Tankei Tori Busshi Unga (ja) Unjo (ja) Unkei Yamaguchi no Ō
Kei schoolThe Kei school was a Japanese school (style) of Buddhist sculpture which emerged in the early Kamakura period (c. 1200). Based in Nara, it was the dominant school in Buddhist sculpture in Japan into the 14th century, and remained influential until the 19th. Art historian Joan Stanley Baker cites the Kei school's early works as the last highpoint in the history of Japanese sculpture. The Kei school developed out of that led by the busshi (Buddhist sculptor) Jōchō's successor, Kakujō and Kakujō's son Raijō, the leading sculptors of the preceding generations.
Japanese sculptureSculpture in Japan began with the clay figure. Towards the end of the long Neolithic Jōmon period, some pottery vessels were "flame-rimmed" with extensions to the rim that can only be called sculptural, and very stylized pottery dogū figures were produced, many with the characteristic "snow-goggle" eyes. During the Kofun period of the 3rd to 6th century CE, haniwa terracotta figures of humans and animals in a simplistic style were erected outside important tombs.
Buddhist artBuddhist art is visual art produced in the context of Buddhism. It includes depictions of Gautama Buddha and other Buddhas and bodhisattvas, notable Buddhist figures both historical and mythical, narrative scenes from their lives, mandalas, and physical objects associated with Buddhist practice, such as vajras, bells, stupas and Buddhist temple architecture. Buddhist art originated in the north of the Indian subcontinent, in modern India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, with the earliest survivals dating from a few centuries after the historical life of Siddhartha Gautama from the 6th to 5th century BCE.
UnkeiUnkei (運慶; 1150 – 1223) was a Japanese sculptor of the Kei school, which flourished in the Kamakura period. He specialized in statues of the Buddha 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 in Nara 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".
Japanese artJapanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture, ink painting and calligraphy on silk and paper, paintings and woodblock prints, ceramics, origami, and more recently manga and anime. It has a long history, ranging from the beginnings of human habitation in Japan, sometime in the 10th millennium BCE, to the present day. Japan has been subject to sudden invasions of new ideas followed by long periods of minimal contact with the outside world.
SculptureSculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sculptural processes originally used carving (the removal of material) and modelling (the addition of material, as clay), in stone, metal, ceramics, wood and other materials but, since Modernism, there has been almost complete freedom of materials and process.
