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Item id: 9431

This impressive and quite large Buddha was almost certainly carved by Enku, who was a Japanese Buddhist monk, poet, and sculptor during the early Edo period (the mid/late 1600s). He was born in Mino Province and is famous for carving as many as 120,000 wooden statues of the Buddha and other Buddhist icons, many of which were given in payment for lodging on his pilgrimages to temples throughout Japan. When I first got this sculpture I could not believe my good fortune that I had actually gotten an original Enku, and not one made later by one of his disciples. Several things, from the incredible Charisma of the piece to the apparent ease and confidence with which it appears to have been made, led me to believe that it must be an original, I decided to search for every one of his sculptures that I could find on the internet. I managed to find more than 100 carved by Enku- it is fascinating to To see how much he bears his mark on each one and makes them look like one of "his", while each looks individual from the others. For example, there is a way the mouth Smiles in almost all of his statues that is a signature feature. It radiates Joy in a way that is hard to describe. Many have the exact same kind of chip carving on the top of the head as mine. Most also have the same amorphous body with exactly the same diagonal lines placed in the same way to suggest wrinkles in the body This Buddha has now taken center stage in my home. He is at my front entrance and is the first to greet people as they enter the house. There are a few things that really stand out in his sculptures that are hard to counterfeit. this is a particularly large example and is made by joining a few pieces of wood together. When you look at some of the other larger statues that are made by joining wood together, they look like they are made of the same kind of wood that is joined in a similar kind of way (though this is hard to tell for sure from small photos online). The only thing that is different about many of the sculptures is that many of them are darker brown, almost blackish. In examining them closely, it appears that they have been darkened over time with a patina due to soot from fires over the centuries. I do not believe that it is any kind of lacquer or a different kind of wood than he typically uses.-I think that they are lighter because of a combination of having been cleaned more and because they had never gotten as darkened, to begin with. You can see traces of timeworn untouched dark brown almost black patina in many of the deep crevices similar in color to that of many of the dark sculptures carved by Enku. I've put up photos of a few other of his sculptures at the end of the listing to give you a sense of what some of his other sculptures look like, The prices for his sculptures can run high Even the smallest ones, if they are any good, tend to sell for many thousands of dollars and the only one to have sold in the west recently that has sold at public auction that I can find is a relatively small one that sold at Christie's last year. It sold on March 22nd, 2022. It went up with an estimate of 60 to $80,000 but sold for an impressive $239,000. While it was smaller than mine, it had a beautiful patina and had outstanding provenance all the way back to a temple in Japan. The quality of the smile and the light from inside was no better. That one was dated 1682. I have found a nearly exact example of mine that was dated 1678 (shown in one of the included books). I have found three books in English on Enku and his life and sculpture, All are tied to exhibitions or studies of his work and are extensively illustrated. I will include them with the sculpture for the winner. Starting price reduced significantly.