Kashiba City
Wooden Seated Image of Amitabha and Standing Attendant Images


Important Cultural Property Designated by the Kashiba Municipal Government
Heian Period

These images are installed in Hoju-ji Temple, south of Goido Station on the Kinki Nippon Railway Osaka Line. The temple is associated with the folk tale "Kaminari no yakusoku" (The Thunder God's Promise).
They form a set of three Buddhist images, with the Amida (Amitabha) image (81 cm tall) in the center, the Kannon image (102 cm tall) as the left-hand attendant, and the Seishi image (106 cm tall) as the right-hand attendant.
They were made by assembling pieces of hinoki cypress wood. The central image's handsome face matches its well-proportional body, featuring a broad chest to belly area and elegantly curved lines of the robe covering the left shoulder down to the belly.
It is assumed that the central image was created in the 12th century and the attendant images made years later in the same century. The attendants' robes are quite different in the design from the central image's, so they may not have originally been created as attendants. Probably they were later installed on the sides of the central image.
They are the only set of three Buddhist images among the extant Buddhist images made during the Heian Period (794-1185) in Kashiba. Well preserved, no doubt they are Kashiba's invaluable cultural assets.

Source: The Kashiba municipal government

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