Silver Buddha

Japanese: 銀仏 - ぎんぶつ

A silver cast Buddha. It is believed that this was already made in India in the early days of Buddhist statue making, but no surviving remains are known. According to the Records of the Great Tang Dynasty, the Tang monk Xuanzang brought it from India in 645. In Japan, there are documents that record statues made after the Nara period, and even after the Heian period, they were often made at the request of emperors and aristocrats. Their development is thought to be roughly similar to that of gilt bronze Buddhas, but because the material is expensive, there were few opportunities to make statues, and the statues are small. There are few surviving remains, and only a wax cast attached to the crown of the Fukukensaku Kannon statue in the Hokkedo Hall of Todaiji Temple from the 8th century Nara period, a 23.6 cm tall silver-plated monk standing statue of Amitabha Buddha, and the remaining part of the right arm of a nearly life-size statue discovered in the Tokondo Hall of Kofukuji Temple.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

銀製の鋳造仏。インドでも仏像造顕の初期にすでに製作されたと思われるが，遺品は知られず，《大唐西域記》によれば645年に唐僧玄奘がインドから請来したことが見える。日本では奈良時代以後の造像を記す文献があり，平安時代以後も天皇，貴族の発願によりしばしば製作された。その展開は，ほぼ金銅仏に準じると思われるが，材料が高価なため，造像の機会は少なく，像も小型である。遺品は少なく，奈良時代8世紀のものとして東大寺法華堂不空羂索観音像の宝冠に付けられた蠟型鋳造，銀製めっきによる像高23.6cmの化仏阿弥陀如来立像，および興福寺東金堂から発見されたほぼ等身大の像の右腕の残欠部が知られる。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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