Dai Kashō (The Arhat Mahākāśyapa)

Mahākāśyapa (Kashō 迦葉) was an arhat, revered as a great ascetic, and the most senior of the disciples of Shakyamuni Buddha. He became the leader of the monastic community (sangha) after the death of the Buddha. This work was probably once part of a group of sculptures, either a set of the ten great disciples of Shakyamuni, or, more likely, in a trio with a large sculpture of Shakyamuni flanked by smaller sculptures of Mahākāśyapa and Ānanda, another important arhat. Here Mahākāśyapa looks up thoughtfully, his finger raised as if he is about to speak. He carries a bag that would have held his only major possession apart from his clothing—a bowl for receiving offerings of food. His earrings were a feature of East Asian Buddhist art that marked the arhat as someone from India, the homeland of Buddhism. The sculpture was made using the yosegi-zukuri 寄木造 method, where multiple pieces of wood are carved and fitted together, the joins later covered with lacquer and paint. Some of the color survives here on Mahākāśyapa’s robe, and his skin still has traces of the gold that symbolizes the inner glow of an enlightened being.