廬舎那仏座像
8世紀に造られた唐招提寺の本尊・盧遮那仏の坐像は、当時の中国・唐王朝の真髄を今日に伝えるものと考えられています。高さは3メートルを越え、奈良時代に盛んに用いられた「脱活乾漆造」と呼ばれる技法によって造形されています。
脱活乾漆造は非常に骨の折れる工程で、粘土の基部に麻の布を一枚一枚貼り付けるところから始まります。乾燥させた塑像の内側を掻き出して空洞にした後、漆に小麦粉などを混ぜて作った特殊なパテで仕上げを施します。盧舎那仏坐像の場合、台座となる蓮の花と光背には金箔が使用されました。5メートルの高さがある光背には、蓮の花弁と864もの数の仏像が刻まれています。
4世紀に鳩摩羅什という僧侶による経典には、上記の表象が生まれた理由に次のような説明を与えています。「われ今盧遮那、方に蓮華台に坐し、周匝せる千華の上にまた千の釈迦を現ず。一華に百億の國あり、一國に一釈迦在り、各菩提樹に坐し、一時に仏道を成じたまふ。」
Statue of Rushana Buddha
Toshodaiji’s principal image is the Rushana (Vairocana) Buddha. This eighth-century statue, which stands more than 3 meters high, was made using the hollow-core dry lacquer technique, which was at its height during the Nara period (710–794). The painstaking process involves pasting layer upon layer of lacquered hemp fabric onto a clay core. Once dried the core is removed and the lacquer-cloth shell that remains is covered with layers of various composite lacquers, such as a putty made from lacquer mixed with wheat flour. The final stage in the production of this statue was to cover it in gold leaf, which was also applied to the lotus flower dais and the halo behind the image. The halo, which is over 5 meters high, is engraved with lotus petals and 864 small buddhas, originally thought to have numbered one thousand.
A translation of Buddhist texts by the fourth century monk Kumarajiva includes a passage explaining the symbolism of such imagery:
[indented quote]
I, Rushana Buddha, sit on a lotus dais surrounded by a
thousand lotus petals on which a thousand buddhas are manifested. Within each petal are a billion realms and within each realm
is a [smaller] buddha who sits beneath a bodhi tree, following the Buddha Way. The original
body of the one thousand larger buddhas and the billion smaller buddhas is Rushana. … Below
[them] … is a mass of countless [bodhisattvas] approaching me, listening to my recitation of
the Buddha Precepts and opening the gates of enlightenment.
[end indented quote]
[Reference: “The Cambridge History of Japan Vol. 1” Delmer M Brown (Cambridge University Press 1988) p. 402]
