Unkei
Unkei (1148-1223) was a Japanese sculptor sometimes called the Michelangelo of Buddhism. The earliest work that can be attributed to him with certainty is a statue of the Buddha dated 1176. Like all his later works this statue exhibits a realism and vigor unknown in Japanese art previously. In 1203 Unkei collaborated with several other master sculptors and their apprentices to produce his greatest work, two wooden statues of temple guardians to be placed in the gate house of the great Todai-ji temple in Nāra. Pieces were carved separately and then assembled. In about 1210 he made carved a statue of Maitreya flanked by two bodhisattvas and two arahats. These statues were so beautiful and so lifelike that evoked wonder in all who saw them. Unkei was not just an artist of great skill he was also a deeply devote Buddhist. Records tell of him copying out three manuscripts of the Saddharmapuṇḍrika Sūtra in 1186. In the colophon of one of these manuscripts he wrote that each evening he tallied up how many words he had written out that day and then bow to the sūtra that many times. Unkei’ s fame has endured right up to today. A Buddha statue made by him sold at an auction at Christi’s in New York for US $14.37.
