National Treasure Hall
Statue of Gobujo
National Treasure
This bust, dated to 734, is part of a statue of Gobujo, one of the set of eight figures depicting the Eight Kinds of Mythological Beings at Kofukuji. The image portrays Gobujo as a young boy with a proud expression and wearing armor and a headdress evoking an elephant’s head. These features suggest Gobujo may be a deva, a class of supernatural beings in Buddhism and Hinduism.
Like the other statues in the set, it was made using the hollow-core dry-lacquer sculpting technique. The Gobujo statue is the only one that suffered major damage and its parts dispersed. During the Meiji era (1868–1912), its right hand and forearm were donated to the Tokyo National Museum.