Wooden statue of a seated Yakushi Nyorai (the Buddha of Healing)

Wooden statue of a seated Yakushi Nyorai (the Buddha of Healing)

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Nationally Designated Important Cultural Property (designated 1901)
Made: Early Heian period (early 10th century)
Location: Yokeiji temple, Kitashima, Oku
Dimensions: Height: 180.0cm

 Thought to have been made in the early 10 th century, the main statue of the Yakushidō, the hall built to house the temple’s statue of Yakushi, the Buddha of Healing, sits in the zazen style with a medicine pot in its left hand. 
 The head and main body, both carved from a single log, have a rather round, portly appearance. The statue’s defining characteristics are a nikkei, a top-knot-like protuberance often seen on the heads of Buddhist statues, only a narrow space between the eyebrows and hair, and a spiral pattern visible on the left collar of the figure’s robe. 
 It is said that this statue was moved from Shitadera temple, which sits at the foot of the same mountain on which Yokeiji temple is located, at some point between 1532 and 1555.

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Cultural properties in Setouchi city​