Here are some projects from my time at Tokyo University of the Arts including my two graduation projects – a copy of a 7th century Asuka Era Nio (guardian statue) made from camphor wood and a restoration of a Jizo Bosatsu statue.
The Arhat statue was created the first year I was in the program. It was built in the traditional way with straw inside and multiple layers of increasingly finer clay.
The Nio original is owned by the university and I worked off a plaster copy. It was missing the side ribbons, a hand and original base. It probably had a staff in one of the hands, but a new one was not created for this project. The wood was sealed with a mixture of Japanese lacquer and solvent.
The Jizo statue had been recarved at some point in history so the original age is unknown. The later painting was cleaned, the recarving documented, new hands, feet, base and urna added. The new wood was color matched. There was not time to repaint the statue in a historical style.
