The deity Vajradhara, who was divided into two bodies by serving Buddha, is a Deva king. They stand firm in pairs with their feet apart, one body with its mouth open in the shape of "A" and the other body with its mouth closed in the shape of "N," in front of temple gates on either side to protect the Dharma. The word "A-Un" has the meaning of inhaling and exhaling. The expression "the breath of A-Un," which means working in perfect harmony, is derived from a Deva king, who protects the temple in a pair of two powerful bodies.
This wooden sculpture is modeled after the standing wooden statue of a Deva king, a national treasure owned by a temple in Nara, and is a spectacularly carved wooden Buddha statue with a total height of approximately 45 cm. Each piece is hand-colored by Takamura Chihiro, a Buddhist statue colorist, and is a gem that allows you to fully appreciate the powerful beauty of the modeling and the beautiful colors.
Many artists, both in the East and the West, have repeatedly copied and imitated works of art. In the Roman era, many masterpieces of Greek sculpture were copied on marble, and Sesshu, a master painter of the Muromachi era, created many masterpieces based on the foreign painting styles and techniques he learned through copying. Sesshu's works were copied and studied actively by painters of the Kano school in the Edo period. Although reproductions and imitations are usually considered to be of low value and not "authentic," they have been the starting point for further creation and the driving force behind the revival of the classics in the process of arts and crafts production.