Buddhist images by prolific sculptor Enku on view at the Mitsui Memorial Museum

Enku (1632-95), a mountain ascetic and prolific sculptor who spent his later years in the mountainous and densely forested Hida region (northern Gifu Prefecture), allegedly carved about 12,000 Buddhist images in his lifetime, while making pilgrimages to far away regions such as Kanto and Hokuriku, and even the northernmost island of Hokkaido. About 5,000 of his works are extant today. For Enku, the act of carving itself was a Buddhist ritual, and in his works, coarsely carved from scraps of wood using nothing more than a chisel or a hatchet, he is said to have sought the image of the tree god.

Enkū’s Buddhist Sculptures at Senkōji
and in the Hida Region

Feb 1 (Sat) – Mar 30 (Sun), 2025

Mitsui Memorial Museum
(Nihonbashi, Tokyo)

*See outline below for details

The Mitsui Memorial Museum in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi district is now running a special exhibition featuring Enku and his distinctive oeuvre. Entitled “Enkū’s Buddhist Sculptures at Senkōji and in the Hida Region,” the exhibition showcases Enku’s masterpieces made at Senko-ji (Takayama, Gifu Pref.) and other temples and shrines in the Hida region, most of which were carved out of a single block of wood.

The must-sees of the exhibition include the seated statue of Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, an aristocrat and waka poet of the Asuka period (Higashiyama Shinmei Jinja shrine in Takayama, Gifu Pref.), the seated Ryomen Sukuna (a two-faced deity, Senko-ji) and the standing Thirty-three Kannon (Senko-ji), all of which evoke the ambience of Hida.

The exhibition runs through March 30, 2025.