Wood Types and Material Selection for Japanese Wooden Statues

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We showed in the first report that, while Cinnamomum camphora was the basic material for wooden statues in the 7th century, statues of the 8th century were made not of Chamaecyparis obtusa, but of Torreya nucifera contrary to former reports. The selection of Torreya nucifera as the material for statue sculpturing was explained as follows.In ancient India, Santalum album(白檀) was prized. But, in China where Santalum album does not grow, "haku"(栢) was selected as the substitute for Santalum album during the Tang Dynasty. This selection must have been introduced into Japan when Ganjin(鑑真) came to Japan in the 8th century. In Japan, however, Torreya nucifera was regarded as "haku" as first as the early half of the 8th century and must have been selected as the substitute of Santalum album.In the present report, we studies statues ranging from in date the Nara to the early Heian Periods, including not only those made of wood but also dry lacquer and clay works with a wooden frame inside. For statues made from one timber, the major type of this period, Torreya nucifera was selected not only in the Kinki District , but in other districts where the tree was available, irrespective of statue size or sculpturing style. In areas where Torreya nucifera did not grow or were few, such as the Tohoku District, other trees such as Zelkova serrate was employed. For statues of the other types, Chamaecyparis obtusa, Zelkova serrate, and Paulownia tomentosa were selected. Thus, dry-lacquer and clay statues were made under a different intention from one-timber statues. The present results of timber selection denied the theory that one-timber statues of the Nara and Heian Periods derived from wood-base-dry lacquer statues by thinning the lacquer layer.