Warabe Jizo Japanese Buddhist Statuette Carving Experience in Yase, Kyoto

A Gateway into Buddhist Statue Carving

Just north of the city of Kyoto, nuzzled in the Takano River basin at the foot of Mount Hiei, a statue carver’s workshop stands amidst such famous sites as Ruriko-in Temple, beloved for its broad drawing room table whose lustrous surface reflects the autumn-dappled foliage of the temple’s garden (viewing seasonally limited), as well as Renge-ji Temple and its delightful Chisen Kaiyushiki garden.

Koudou Noda crafts and repairs all manner of Buddhist statues and statuettes

Fukushima-born Buddhist sculptor Koudou Noda runs Yase-Zobutsusho. After moving to Kyoto for university, a visit to the city’s Toji Temple found him powerfully moved by the mystical power he felt emanating from the statues lining the temple’s auditorium. This was the event that drew him into the world of Buddhist sculpture, and after a 13-year apprenticeship at a studio in Kyoto, he finally struck out on his own. “Having grown up in the suburban environment of Fukushima Prefecture, I find it easiest to create while ensconced in nature.”

The studio’s tranquil and naturalistic design makes the most of wood’s warmth

The studio’s windows afford an expansive view of the greenery of the nearby mountain range. Its walls are lined with sketched draft plans for statues and other works in progress. In this quiet space built for concentration and inspiration, create your Warabe Jizo statuette. Lose yourself to the flow of the craft, letting go of your cares and worries.

Carving a Cute and Comforting Warabe Jizo

Warabe Jizo is a Bodhisattva with origins in India. These figurines, often carved from stone, can be found at temples and on roadsides. They are revered as protectors of children and as a cute and reassuring presence.

Hold the chisel in a pencil grip with your right hand and use your left to push its blade along

Your Jizo statuette will have been roughly shaped into its rudimentary outline ahead of time. It is up to you and your powers of concentration to chisel it along the grain of its wood to give its intricately detailed head, shoulders, and other parts their varying angles and roundness.

Carving the surface with only a chisel and no file requires patience and deep focus, but the more you do it, the more technique you will pick up: the optimum angle of the blade, the optimum force to use. Even if you’ve never even held a chisel before, worry not: Noda will remain ever close by to watch over your work.

Attentive observation and correction to ensure optimal chiseling technique

Buddhist sculptors often refer to their approach as “itto sanrai,” which literally means “one cut, three prayers of worship.” This is an attitude of veneration for each stroke of the blade, and of working with humility. 

Says Noda: “Waste not a single stroke of the chisel. Each is an act of giving form to a Buddha.” His stories and explanations of the philosophy and history of Buddhism and its sculpting traditions are sure to be a highlight of the experience, bridging the gap between the physical techniques of carving and the attitudes and thinking underlying them, providing new perspectives on the iconography, on Buddhism, and on self-sight.

Take a break in the midst of your long deep focus to eat. Participants are welcome to bring their own lunch, but Kyoto-style bento boxed lunches are also available if reserved in advance at the time of booking as an optional add-on.

Give Your One-of-a-kind Warabe Jizo its Individuality and Personality with a Unique Face

Now it’s time for the finishing touches on your Warabe Jizo. As you give your figure its final form, a bond gradually tends to develop, stroke by stroke.

Visualizing the heights and depths of the face, mark the guidelines for your strokes

When the figurine has taken shape, sketch guidelines for its face and switch to a round-tipped chisel to put the finishing three-dimensional touches on it.

It’s hard not to feel a close relationship to the Warabe Jizo you gave meticulous shape to with your own hands

The statue’s face has a peculiar tendency to reflect aspects of its sculptor’s, because – as Noda explains it – the self is reflected in the figurine.

“Buddhist sculpting is not composition, and it is not craftsmanship. A Buddhist sculptor distances and effaces the ego and the self, striving toward their own ideal form just as much as that of their work, drawing beauty out of letting go of selfishness and self-centeredness.”

Part of the appeal of this experience is being able to brush up against this state of mind even if only for a fleeting moment.

The Allure of Buddhist Statues, in Whose Forms Japanese History Lives

The art form of Buddhist statue carving has been practiced in Japan since the Asuka Period (592-710), evolving with the ages and developing over time into a distinctly Japanese style. It is said that these figures were once even carved to act as charms to be kept close at hand for their comforting familiar presence.

A soothing and tender expression conveying a heart full of compassion

The Warabe Jizo carved by your own hand is a one-of-a-kind original, best displayed with high visibility as a comforting icon whose gentle gaze can still your heart and cleanse your mood – and a memento of the day of tranquil introspection you spent at Yase-Zobutsusho.