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Buddhas in the Forest, Buddhas Along the Road: Stone Sculpture in Japanese Religious History

Janet Goodwin, Independent Scholar and
James Goodwin, UCLA

Stone Buddhist images (sekibutsu) represent many kinds of religious practice in Japan. Ascetics carved images on mountain cliffs or in caves for their own use in meditation; provincial notables commissioned extensive sites in rural areas; and mourners had small images marked with the names of dead loved ones. Sekibutsu are found all over Japan and date from the seventh or eighth century to modern times. Unlike most wooden or bronze images found in temples, sekibutsu are often associated with non-elites, and thus provide information on popular religious practice.

Over a number of years we photographed sekibutsu, documenting locations, sizes, and materials, translating inscriptions, and conducting research on sculptors, donors, and religious context. We are now creating a web site based on our photographs. As we develop pages, the data is entered in the ECAI clearinghouse. A small set is now viewable using Time Map. At the conference, we intend to show selected pages from the site and discuss the process of gathering information, integrating it into the database, and developing the site as an educational tool.