Jōchō

Japanese sculptor

  • Born: Unknown
  • Birthplace: Probably Kyoto, Japan
  • Died: 1057
  • Place of death: Probably Kyoto, Japan

Jōchō established an indigenous Japanese style of wood sculpture using a joined-wood technique.

Early Life

Very little is known about the first twenty years of the life of Jōchō (joh-choh). At the age of twenty, he became a disciple of Kōjō, according to a book called Chūgaishō (compiled in the twelfth century). Kōjō was a prestigious court sculptor in Kyoto, and he and Jōchō collaborated on many projects. Their works were enshrined at the Hōjōji Muryōjuin (Amida hall) in Kyoto, which was built for the former prime minister Fujiwara Michinaga (regent, 996-1017). That was the first time Jōchō met Michinaga, who was the most powerful politician in the late Heian period. To be invited to make a sculpture for Michinaga was considered a great honor.

According to an entry for the year 1020 in the Chūgaishō, Jōchō deeply impressed Michinaga with his sculptures . This source also maintains that, with Michinaga’s help, Jōchō became one of the top artists of the late Heian period. (Jōchō’s age at this time is disputed among scholars.)

Aside from the Chūgaishō, there is no source that describes Jōchō’s early life. It is assumed that Jōchō spent his days of apprenticeship under Kōjō. Kōjōwho may have been Jōchō’s father, had the greatest influence on him. It is fair to say that Kōjō created the foundation, in both style and method, for Jōchō’s achievement in art.

Kōjō was active from the end of the tenth century until his death around 1022. His style was calm and elegant, with soft modeling, refined details, and naturalistic proportions, as seen in the Fudō Myōō (bright king) image at Dōshuin, Kyoto. His work was a great change from the solid-wood sculptures of the previous period, with their massive, powerful forms but rather stiff style.

Kōjō was well connected with the upper class of society, including the court, aristocracy, and dominant monasteries. His lifetime relationship with Michinaga and his association with a monk of the Tendai Buddhist sect, Genshin, were particularly influential. According to Genshin’s Pure Land (Jōdo) teaching, the aristocracy should strive to be reborn in paradise after leaving this world.

Hōjōji was Michinaga’s project to visualize paradise in this world. The nine Amida Buddhas and two bodhisattvas at the Muryōjuin were icons for the salvation of Michinaga on his deathbed. In fact, Michinaga died holding the colorful strings extending from the hands of the nine Buddhas. The late Heian sculpture style (also called the Fujiwara style) was the art of Pure Land Buddhism. Kōjō made a great step toward this style, and after his death, Jōchō carried on the attempt to create an ideal form of the Buddha for the aristocracy.

Life’s Work

Jōchō’s active period was roughly from 1020 to 1057. His accomplishments cover three distinct phases: the image making for the Hōjōji, the engagement in the Kōfukuji reconstruction, and the creation of the Amida for the Byōdōin Hōōdō (Phoenix Hall). Two years after his debut at the Muryōjuin, Jōchō made thirteen images for the halls of Kondō (golden hall) and Godaidō (hall of five deities) at Hōjōji. After Kōjō’s death, Michinaga assigned Jōchō to complete the Hōjōji project. Some of the statues that Jōchō made for the two halls are the Buddha figures of Dainichi, Shaka, and Yakushi, bodhisattva figures of Monju and Miroku, and various great kings and other deities. For this incomparable contribution, Jōchō was awarded the Buddhist rank of hokkyō (bridge of law) in 1022; he was the first sculptor to be so honored. The award enhanced the social status of sculptors; during later periods, other sculptors became eligible for this honor.

In the following year, Jōchō made the images for the Yakushidō Hall in the Hōjōji. There were twenty-five statues in all. In 1026, he made twenty-seven life-size images within two months for one of Michinaga’s daughters, Empress Takeko. Not only the quantity but also the size of the work was characteristic of Jōchō’s sculptures. In the case of the Hōjōji, the images vary from about 6-30 feet (2-10 meters) in height for standing figures and 3-15 feet (1-5 meters) for seated figures. During this period, the jōroku (seated Buddha) was a popular figure, measuring approximately 9 feet (3 meters) in height.

One of Jōchō’s accomplishments was the establishment of a studio system. Responding to the popularity of icon making among the aristocracy, his studio increased its scale so that it could mass produce huge sculptures. About one hundred sculptors worked under Jōchō to make the Hōjōji imagery. By using a multiple-block technique of assembling wood, many images could be produced in a short time. A division of labor was established: There were daibusshi (major Buddhist sculptors) and shōbusshi (minor Buddhist sculptors). Several shōbusshi worked under each daibusshi, and Jōchō supervised all daibusshi. This system proved to be effective and was adopted by sculptors in later periods.

The technique popular during the early Heian period, which involved solid wood, was replaced by Jōchō’s Kiyosehō, or joined-wood method, which was more economical with wood, produced relatively lightweight sculptures, helped prevent cracking, and allowed for mass production. The thinner wood used in this process forced changes in the style and type of carving. Instead of deep and sharp grooves, which produced the honpa-shiki (rolling wave style) seen during previous periods, the figures now featured shallow carving, with the result that the surface had a soft, gentle quality. This change of style suited the taste of the aristocracy.

In 1048, Jōchō acquired the even higher Buddhist rank of hōgen (eyes of law) for his efforts in reconstructing the images of the Kōfukuji. The Kōfukuji, a temple of the Fujiwara family in Nara, burned down in 1046. The next year, Fujiwara Yorimichi (regent, 1017-1068), Michinaga’s son, began to reconstruct the temple. Jōchō’s participation in this project provided a good opportunity for him to learn the Nara style of sculpture. He also made the Buddha Shaka for one of the halls of the Yakushiji, Tōin Hakkaku Endō, in Nara. For this image, he is said to have copied the Shaka of Daianji, which is one of the excellent works from the Nara period (710-794). Jōchō’s study of the classic style of Nara later appeared in the perfect form of the Amida in the Phoenix Hall of the Byōdōin in Uji, Kyoto. Jōchō surpassed Kōjō by adopting the Nara style in his sculpture.

Of Jōchō’s masterpieces, the Amida image in the Phoenix Hall is his only work that is known to exist in modern times. A diary of Taira Sadaie, who was Yorimichi’s secretary, states that on the nineteenth day of the second month of 1053, the Amida was enshrined in the Amida hall of Byōdōin. It mentions that Jōchō received gifts for the making of the statue on the day the image was enshrined. This entry proves that the Amida that is now at Phoenix Hall was made by Jōchō.

The Byōdōin was first the villa of Michinaga, and after his death, it became Yorimichi’s villa. In 1052, at the age of sixty-one, Yorimichi converted this villa into a temple. In the next year, the dedication of the Phoenix Hall was held, and the Amida image was brought from Kyoto and placed inside. The Phoenix Hall is a building with wings on each side and a tail extending to the rear, and it is completely surrounded by ponds. Two phoenix birds are set on each side of the roof of the hall. The Amida is seated on a lotus pedestal in the altar placed in the center of the hall. It is backed by a boat-shaped mandorla decorated with clouds and angels. Above the mandorla is an elaborate canopy. The fifty-two cloud-riding bodhisattvas are suspended from the walls, and the Pure Land paintings are depicted below on the door panels and walls. The ceiling, pillars, brackets, and other woodwork are decorated with bird and flower motifs. The entire hall is decorated splendidly to express a world of paradise. Phoenix Hall is an excellent representative of Fujiwara aristocratic art, which blended landscape, architecture, sculpture, painting, and craft.

Jōchō and his studio were probably engaged in the making of all the sculptural works for the hall. The Amida, however, was the supreme work. The seated Buddha is perfectly balanced and softly modeled. Every line is fluid and curvilinear; there is no distortion or imperfection. The face of the image has been described as being as round as a full moon. The facial expression is calm, tender, and full of affection. The thin robe is softly fitted to the body, and the folds of the simple drapery flow naturally. The folds are shallowly carved; Jōchō no longer used the early Heian style of carving that Kōjō used. The Buddha sits comfortably, hands folded in the posture of meditation.

The naturalness of this image reflects Jōchō’s mastery of proportion. In 1134, the sculptors Inkaku and Inchō measured more than sixty sections of another Amida image made by Jōchō. The precise proportions of Jōchō’s images are possible because of the innovative joined-wood method he used. Inspired by the aristocratic taste of the time, Jōchō’s work reflects a sense of elegance. It is believed that Jōchō died on the first day of the eighth month of 1057.

Significance

Jōchō’s Amida became a standard model for the seated Amida Buddha. During the twelfth century, the Jōchō style dominated Japanese sculpture. With the popularity of Pure Land Buddhism, images similar to the Phoenix Hall Amida were made throughout Japan. Some of the examples include the Chūsonji and the Hakusui Amidadō, both in northern Japan. Most of these images remained faithful to Jōchō’s style, reflecting little of the later sculptors’ personalities. In fact, sculptors who attempted to emulate Jōchō’s work tended to create stylized and lifeless figures. The limitations of Jōchō’s style were those of the elite society of the period. His patrons were aristocrats and other members of the ruling class who were successful politically and economically. Thus, the style he pioneered lost its vitality following the decline of the aristocracy and was eventually replaced by the Kamakura style.

Jōchō’s contribution to the development of Japanese art was enormous. With Jōchō, Japanese Buddhist sculpture first achieved its own indigenous style. For centuries after the introduction of Buddhism to Japan in the early sixth century, Buddhist sculpture in Japan was imitative of Chinese and Korean art. Jōchō, following Kōjō’s principle, was able to express the distinctively Japanese sense of beauty, serenity, and elegance in his images.

Bibliography

Fukuyama, Toshio. Heian Temples: Byōdō-in and Chūson-ji. Translated by Ronald K. Jones. New York: Weatherhill, 1976. A finely illustrated book dealing with the art of Pure Land Buddhism of the late Heian period. It contains the Hōjōji and Byōdōin Phoenix Hall of the eleventh century and the Chūsonji and others of the twelfth century.

Horomitsu, Washizuka, et al. Enlightenment Embodied: The Art of the Japanese Buddhist Sculptor, Seventh to Fourteenth Centuries. Translated and edited by Reiko Tomii and Kathleen M. Fraiello. New York: Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, and Japan Society, 1997. This catalog of an exhibition at the Japan Society Gallery in 1997 features Buddhist art, much of it contemporary with Jōchō’s work.

Kuno, Takeshi, ed. A Guide to Japanese Sculpture. Tokyo: Maruyama, 1963. Useful for a survey of the major trends of the history of Japanese sculpture. Contains helpful glossary and charts.

Morse, Anne Nishimura, and Nobuo Tsuji, eds. Japanese Art in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 2 vols. Boston: The Museum, 1998. This catalog of Buddhist art in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, presents a wide array of art, including painting, sculpture, Nō masks, robes, and paintings from the Kano and Rimpa schools.

Nishikawa, Kyōtarō, and Emily J. Sano. The Great Age of Japanese Buddhist Sculpture, A.D. 600-1300. Fort Worth, Tex.: Kimbell Art Museum, 1982. The catalog of an exhibition of Japanese Buddhist sculpture at the Kimbell Art Museum. A good source for the sculpture of Byōdōin Phoenix Hall.

Okazaki, Jōji. Pure Land Buddhist Painting. Translated by Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis. Tokyo: Kodansha International and Shibundō, 1977. A useful source for understanding Pure Land Buddhism and its art, which flourished among the Fujiwara aristocracy.

Stanley-Baker, Joan. Japanese Art. Rev. ed. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2000. A general work on Japanese art. Chapter 4 focuses on the Heian period, covering the period in which Jōchō worked.