本文
Stone statues of Fudō Myōō (the Immovable One), Amida (the Buddha of Infinite Light and Life) and Jizō (the Bodhisattva of the Earth Matrix)
Stone statues of Fudō Myōō (the Immovable One), Amida (the Buddha of Infinite Light and Life) and Jizō (the Bodhisattva of the Earth Matrix)
Municipally Designated Important Cultural Property (designated 2004)
Made: Jizō: 1730 (Kyōhō 15), Amida:1734 (Kyōhō 19), Fudō Myōō: 1820 (Bunsei 3).
Location: Kashino, Ushimado
Dimensions: Fudō Myōō: 132.0cm, Amida: 140.5cm, Jizō: 145.5cm
One side of each of these tall, naturally-shaped granite slabs has been flattened and carved with an almost life-sized representation of a standing figure in relief across its entire surface. In the middle is Fudō Myōō, flanked on the left by Amida, and on the right by Jizō. From their inscriptions, these three statues appear to have been made at different times: Jizō in 1730, Amida in 1734, and Fudō Myōō in 1820.
Several unknowns still surround these carvings, such as why there is a 100-year gap between the production dates of the second and last slabs, or why these three statues are gathered in one place. Even so, due to their quality, which surpasses that of many others from the Edo period, an era of decline in the craft history of Japanese stone statuary, as well as their great size and the presence of date inscriptions, these three have been designated as cultural properties.
