Tori Busshi
Japan's first known sculptor.
Tori Busshi, of Chinese or Korean descent, cast the Shaka Triad at Hōryū-ji in 623. The style is based on Chinese models from the Northern Wei.
Tori Busshi, also known as Kuratsukuri no Tori, was active in the early 7th century. He is the first Japanese sculptor we know by name. He belonged to a family of immigrants from the mainland, and his grandfather Shiba Tatto is thought to have come from China or Korea. The name Kuratsukuri means roughly saddle-maker and suggests the family were craftsmen. Busshi means maker of Buddhist images.
He worked in the Asuka period, when Buddhism had recently arrived in Japan and was supported by Prince Shōtoku and the powerful Soga clan. According to the sources he made the great Buddha at the Asuka-dera temple in 606, but it has been damaged and repaired so much that little of the original remains.
His principal work is the Shaka Triad in the Kondō, the Golden Hall, of the Hōryū-ji temple near Nara. An inscription on the mandorla records that it was made in 623 in memory of Prince Shōtoku and that Tori was the master. The triad is cast in bronze and gilded. In the centre sits Shaka, the historical Buddha, flanked by two standing bodhisattvas.
The Tori style is based on Chinese models from the Northern Wei dynasty, transmitted via Korea. The figures are frontal and symmetrical, with long, narrow faces, almond-shaped eyes and a faint archaic smile. The drapery folds are stylised and fall in regular patterns. The style shaped early Buddhist sculpture in Japan, and the Shaka Triad is designated a National Treasure.