Japanese Sculptures

Japanese Buddhist Sculptures

Images of the Buddha, who lived in India between the 6th and 5th centuries B.C., originated in North India and present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan in the 1st century A.D. Over the following centuries, sculptural representation of Buddha and the large pantheon of Buddhist deities became an important artistic tradition in nearly every culture between Afghanistan and Japan, where this religion arrived during the Nara period, mid 6th century.

Japanese buddhist sculptures range from miniature figures to giant images and are almost invariably  made of wood.