@article{oai:tobunken.repo.nii.ac.jp:00006819,
 author = {久野, 健 and Kuno, Takeshi},
 issue = {204},
 journal = {美術研究, The bijutsu kenkyu : the journal of art studies},
 month = {Jan},
 note = {Jōraku-ji Temple at Ashina, Zushi in Kanagawa Prefecture owns five old Buddhist statues, namely the Amida (Amitabha) Triad, Bishamon Ten (Vaisravana) and Fudō Myōō (Acala), which were registered in 1926 as Important Cultural Properties. We made researches on these statues on April 20, 1959, when we discovered, from the inside of the statue of Bishamon Ten, a tablet with inscription stating that it was carved in 1189 by Unkei and his ten assistants.
     The tablet, 71.5cm. in height and having a long handle in shape of a lotus stalk, has a circle and lotus petals below it drawn in black ink, with the Sanskrit monogram representing Tamon Ten inscribed within the circle. A dharani (magic formula) in Sanskrit is inscribed from its obverse surface through sides to reverse surface, and the reverse side has an inscription to the following effect : “This statue was made on March 20, 1189, at the behest of Taira-no-Yoshimori, by Unkei, the Dai Busshi (Major Sculptor) with the ecclesiastic rank of Kōtō in the Shōō-in Monastery at Kōfuku-ji, assisted by ten minor sculptors. This inscription was written by the priest Jinsai Jōkabō.” 
     Both from the calligraphic and literary styles of the inscription, the tablet is evidently datable to somewehere around 1189. This does not necessarily mean that the tablet was prepared for the present statue. The tablets discovered from inside the statues of Bishamon Ten and Fudō Myōō in Ganjōju-in Temple in Shizuoka, with inscriptions containing the name of Unkei and dates of 1186, were approximately similar in the style of narration to that of Jōraku-ji, but at the time of their registration as National Treasures it was judged that the tablets were original but the statues were of a later period. It is hardly believable, however, that such an exceptional case, that statues are later and the tablets placed inside alone are old, should have occured two times with Unkei. Moreover, the Bishamon Ten at Jōraku-ji clearly shows the style of the Early Kamakura Period. The author believes that the tablet under discussion has always belonged to the present statue.
     The Amida Triad in the same temple also is inscribed on the inside with the same dharani as the one found on the tablet for the Bishamon Ten. The inscription is obviously by the same hand as the Bishamon Ten tablet. It can be asserted with considerable accuracy that the triad as well as the Fudō Myōō in Jōraku-ji were also carved by Unkei in 1189. The discovery of the tablet, thus, has added as many as five specimens to less than ten statues which have heretofore been known as genuine works of Unkei. The author furthermore suggests that the Amida, Bishamon Ten and Fudō Myōō in Ganjōju-in, from the last two of which were discovered the tablets dated 1186, can possibly be also by Unkei. He discusses also about the Eight Messengers of Fudō in the Fudō-dō Hall at Kōyasan, Wakayama, as follows. Six of the Eight Messengers are attributed in an old record to Unkei, but many scholars have been sceptial about this attribution. The author and his colleagues made X-ray examination of the statues some years ago and found that they contained discs on lotus pedestals which were similar in form to that drawn on the tablet of Bishamon Ten in Jōraku-ji. He thinks that the Eight Messengers at Kōyasan have to be re-studied.
     It has not been known when Unkei was conferred with the title Dai Busshi. The tablets in Jōraku-ji and Ganjōju-in prove that it was between May 3, 1186 and March 20, 1189. The Jōraku-ji tablet, especially, is an important source of information concerning the connection Unkei had with Kōfuku-ji Temple in Nara.},
 pages = {11--28},
 title = {浄楽寺の仏像と運慶},
 year = {1960}
}