Shōtoku Taishi

Shōtoku Taishi (聖徳太子), Prince Shōtoku, was the regent of Empress Suiko in the late sixth and early seventh centuries and the great early champion of Buddhism in Japan. He is credited with the Seventeen-Article Constitution, with commentaries on the sutras and with founding Hōryūji and Shitennōji. After his death he became the object of a cult that honoured him as an incarnation of Kannon.

Japanese 聖徳太子, Shōtoku Taishi
Lived 574 to 622
Temples Hōryūji in Nara; Shitennōji in Osaka
Honoured as Father of Japanese Buddhism; incarnation of Kannon; patron of carpenters and craftsmen

Three ages of the prince

  • The child of two. A naked infant in a red skirt, hands joined, who by legend faced east and chanted the Buddha's name. These figures, Namu Butsu Taishi, are tender and much loved.
  • The youth of sixteen. Holding a long-handled censer, praying for his father's recovery, a model of filial devotion.
  • The regent. A dignified courtier with a ceremonial tablet, shaku, sometimes with two young princes.

The cult of the prince

Devotion to Shōtoku grew from the Heian period and flourished in the Kamakura period, when Shinran revered him as the father of Japanese Buddhism and dreamed of him at a decisive moment. Carpenters and craftsmen, who credited him with the building of Japan's first great temples, made him their patron, and Taishi gatherings, Taishi-kō, were held by guilds into modern times.

Collecting notes

  • Kamakura and later figures of the infant prince are among the most charming Buddhist sculptures. Original pigments and crystal eyes add much.
  • Paintings of the prince's life, Shōtoku Taishi eden, are a narrative genre linked to Hōryūji and Shitennōji.

In the collection

Browse Buddhist Statues and Sacred Art. Our collector concierge can search Japan for an image of the prince.

See also

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