Carved into the rock

Buddhas cut directly into cliffs and boulders (magaibutsu). 102 works.

The making of magaibutsu in Japan is thought to go back to the Nara period or the early Heian period, and they were carved in numbers from the late Heian period through the Kamakura period, across Kyushu, the Kansai, the Kanto, Hokuriku and Tohoku. They cannot be moved. Many of the works in this archive have travelled from temple to museum, or from Japan abroad; a figure cut into a cliff stays where it was carved, and where it is forms part of the work. Stone cannot be added to the way wood can be joined, and the weathering continues.