Statue of Yakushi Nyorai
This statue of Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of healing and medicine, in the Main Hall at Horyuji Temple, was made for Emperor Yomei (518–587). An inscription on the back of the Buddha’s halo explains that the emperor fell ill in the first year of his reign (586) and desired the statue to be made. He passed away before it was finished. The inscription continues: “His sister, Empress Suiko, and his son, the Crown Prince Shotoku, fulfilled his will. The statue was finished in the fifteenth year of Empress Suiko’s reign [c. 607].”