<em>Head of a Guardian</em>, 13th century. Hinoki wood with lacquer on cloth, pigment, rock crystal, metal, 22 1/16 x 10 1/4 x 13 15/16 (56.0 x 26.0 x 35.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair B. Martin, the Guennol Collection, 86.21. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: , 86.21_PS9.jpg)

Head of a Guardian, 13th century. Hinoki wood with lacquer on cloth, pigment, rock crystal, metal, 22 1/16 x 10 1/4 x 13 15/16 (56.0 x 26.0 x 35.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair B. Martin, the Guennol Collection, 86.21. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: , 86.21_PS9.jpg)

DOWNLOAD

Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

What type of paint did they use?

They used lacquer to cover the exterior, wooden elements but I'm not sure what was used for the eyes. I don't know if you noticed but they are rock crystal and have actually been painted from the inside. Likely natural pigments were mixed with binders to create the paints.

Would all four of the guardian statues have green skin?

It’s possible, but we aren’t sure. Sometimes sets of guardian figures were designed to appear uniform; sometimes they were all different colors (like yellow, or red), including their skin.

Which of the four warrior kings does this head belong to?

We can’t be sure. Each of the four guardians are identified by the particular weapons and objects that they hold in their hands. Tamonten (Guardian King of the North) is identified by a stupa in one hand and lance in the other, Jikokuten (Guardian King of the East) carries a sword, Zōchōten (Guardian King of the South) carries a lance, and Kōmokuten (Guardian King of the West) is most often depicted with a brush in one hand and a scroll in the other. Because this is only a head, it’s missing the attributes that would identify the particular guardian or direction.

Okay, thank you.

Where is the rest of his body?

Sadly, the rest of this sculpture was lost long before it came to the museum.

What is rock crystal?

Rock crystal is a particularly transparent variety of the mineral quartz. When polished it can resemble glass. It can be found all over the world including in Japan.

The eyes of this sculpture are made from rock crystal that’s been painted from behind and mounted from the inside of this wooden head.

That's so cool! Thank you.

How were the eyes made?

The eyes are made from rock crystal—a type of quartz—that’s been carved and polished. The details of the eyes were painted onto the inside of the rock crystal to create the realistic, translucent effect you see.

The black paint of the pupil was applied first, then the iris colors, then the red and white of the eye.

The technique of insetting rock crystals like this for the eyes was an innovation during the Kamakura period in Japan. The goal was to increase the realism of the sculpture. The rock crystal is held in place from the inside of the head, with strips of wood held down with pegs.

Is this meant to scare the observer?

His appearance is definitely fearsome! This sculpture was designed to protect a temple by intimidating any potential evil forces and preventing them from interfering with the worshippers.

Scary! Thanks for the insights!

Head of a Guardian

Asian Art

On View: Asian Galleries, Arts of Japan, 2nd floor

About this Brooklyn Icon
The Brooklyn Museum is commemorating its 200th anniversary by spotlighting 200 standout objects in its encyclopedic collection.

This dramatically scowling head is one of the most masterful and monumental examples of Japanese Buddhist sculpture in the United States. It once topped a giant wood sculpture of a heavenly protector in a Buddhist temple. It represented one of four guards who stood in aggressive postures around an image of the seated Buddha. Traces remain of bright-green paint on the surface; his fellow guardians were likely red, white, and yellow, and together they faced the four cardinal directions. These figures were supposed to scare away anything that threatened the religion, including qualities such as ignorance and greed.

The head is an important example of sculpture from Japan’s Kamakura period (1185–1333), when artists started to create more expressive, energetic depictions of Buddhist deities. Although the body is lost, the face reveals a great deal about how the figure would have looked: alert, menacing, and muscular. The artist used rock crystal for the eyes so they would have reflected light. Together with the open mouth (with its brightly painted teeth and tongue), the glinting eyes made this face powerful and intimidating, looming far above the viewer in the dimly lit interior of the temple.

***

Gallery Label

This dramatic head once appeared atop the giant, muscular figure of a shitennō, or guardian figure, one of four surrounding an even larger figure of a Buddha that served as the primary focus for worship in a temple. The guardians stood in aggressive postures, fending off any evil that might come to the temple. With its crystal eyes and bright-green skin, this figure must have been an intimidating presence in the dimly lit temple interior. In the Kamakura period (1185–1333), Japanese sculptors introduced a new degree of naturalism and expression to previously idealized and serene Buddhist subjects. This head came from the collection of Kofuku-ji, an important temple in the city of Nara.

MEDIUM Hinoki wood with lacquer on cloth, pigment, rock crystal, metal

Place Made: Japan

DATES 13th century

PERIOD Kamakura Period

DIMENSIONS 22 1/16 x 10 1/4 x 13 15/16 (56.0 x 26.0 x 35.5 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Asian Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 86.21

CREDIT LINE Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair B. Martin, the Guennol Collection

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION An over-life-size head from a figure of one of the Shitenno, the four guardian kings of the cardinal directions in Buddhism. The head was at one time owned by the Nara temple Kofuku-ji. The fiery eyes, furrowed brow, prominent nose, and open mouth present a ferocious mien typical of these Heavenly Guardians, whose role was to protect the temple's sacred precincts. The head is carved of two blocks of wood, into which the topknot is inserted. Crystal inset eyes, painted on reverse. The filigree metal crown is a later replacement. Remains of polychrome on the outer surface, and traces of the painter's graffiti on the interior.

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Asian Galleries, Arts of Japan, 2nd floor

CAPTION Head of a Guardian, 13th century. Hinoki wood with lacquer on cloth, pigment, rock crystal, metal, 22 1/16 x 10 1/4 x 13 15/16 (56.0 x 26.0 x 35.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair B. Martin, the Guennol Collection, 86.21. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: , 86.21_PS9.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 86.21_PS9.jpg., 2019

"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.

RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY

You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.

RECORD COMPLETENESS

Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.