natabori　鉈彫

KEY WORD :　art history / sculptures

A type of wooden sculpture characterized by round chisel nata 鉈 marks that are left on the surface. Natabori are sculpted to the rough-cut *arabori 荒彫 or fine-cut *kozukuri 小造り stage without undergoing the finishing shiage 仕上げ process. For this reason, one school of thought claims that natabori are unfinished, incompleted works, while another claims that they constitute a specific sculptural style. However, since natabori have been found within a specific region and dated to a specific period only, they are now more often considered to be completed works in their own right. Natabori are found primarily in the Kantou 関東 region in an area of eastern Japan extending from the Chita 知多 Peninsula, Aichi prefecture in the west, to Iwate prefecture in the north, and date from the 10-13c. In western Japan sculpture with natabori features have been found, but these features only appear on a part of the sculpture, and do seem to incomplete works. Natabori are usually made from hardwood such as the judas tree katsura 桂 or the zelkowa keyaki 欅. Neither painted nor lacquered, their rough surface gives a sense of simplicity and directness. The oldest extant example is the Yakushi sansonzou 薬師三尊像 of Houjoubou 宝城坊, Kanagawa prefecture, which is thought to have been made in the 10c. Other examples include the Juuichimen Kannonzou 十一面観音像 in Gumyouji 弘明寺, Kanagawa prefecture, and the Shoukannonzou 聖観音像 in Tendaiji 天台寺, Iwate prefecture. In the late Edo period, sculpture by the Buddhist priest Enkuu 円空 (1632-95) have also been classified as natabori. Enkuu, from Mino 美濃 (modern Gifu prefecture), traveled the northern and eastern parts of Japan and sculpted a large number of Buddhist statues, allegedly making 120,000 figures. His statues share the characteristic natabori style, carved only with a chisel.

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