Research on Wood Types and Material Selection for Japanese Wooden Statues of the Ancient Period

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We carried out wood identification of single-bole statues of the 8th to 9th AD and hatchet-sculpted statues of the Kanto and Tohoku districts of the 10th to 11th AD and discussed their implication in a paper. We also studies ca. 130 Shinto statues from various regions and indicated difference in the wood selection between western and eastern Japan including the Kinai area. Radiocarbon dating of some Shinto statues showed discrepancies between the felling dates of material trees and the manufacturing dates of statues. Accumulation of such data should clarify a relationship between these two types of dates and yield another aspect in the wood selection for ancient statues different from that deduced from dendrochronology.