National Treasure Hall
Statue of Kinnara
National Treasure
Kinnara, one of the set of Eight Kinds of Mythological Beings at Kofukuji, comes from a class of beings in Indian mythology known as kinnaras who serve as celestial musicians. In Japanese Buddhist belief, kinnara serve as attendants in the courts of Bishamonten (also known as Tamonten), a deity of war and one of the Four Heavenly Kings, and Taishakuten, a ruler of one of the heavens in Buddhist cosmology.
This work is dated to 734 and was made by the hollow-core dry-lacquer sculpting technique.