Ancient Japanese Buddhist&Shinto sculptures in rare Natabori style. Video

Blog entry 21th Feb. 2009 ADEYTO presents 1000 years old Japanese Buddhist and Shinto statues sculpted in the rare style called "Natabori" 鉈彫 = Hachet carvings. A type of wooden sculpture characterized by round chisel (nata 鉈) marks that are left on the surface. Natabori are sculpted to the rough-cut (*arabori 荒彫) or fine-cut (kozukuri 小造り) stage without undergoing the finishing (shiage 仕上げ) process. For this reason, one school of thought claims that natabori are unfinished, incompleted works, while another claims that they constitute a specific sculptural style. However, since natabori have been found within a specific region and dated to a specific period only, they are now more often considered to be completed works in their own right. Natabori are found primarily in the Kantou 関東 region in an area of eastern Japan extending from the Chita 知多 Peninsula, Aichi prefecture in the west, to Iwate prefecture in the north, and date from the 10-13c. In western Japan sculpture with natabori features have been found, but these features only appear on a part of the sculpture, and do seem to incomplete works. Natabori are usually made from hardwood such as the Judas tree (katsura 桂) or the zelkowa (keyaki 欅). Neither painted nor lacquered, their rough surface gives a sense of simplicity and directness. The oldest extant example is the Yakushi Triad, Yakushi sansonzou 薬師三尊像 of Houjoubou 宝城坊, Kanagawa prefecture, which is thought to have been made in the 10c ...