Inpa - Inpa

A common name for a lineage of Buddhist sculptors that continued from the late Heian period through the Kamakura and Muromachi periods. Many of the sculptors belonging to the Shichijo Omiya Buddhist Temple, whose founder was Insuke, the grandson of Jocho, who was said to be the father of Buddhist sculptors, and its offshoot, the Rokujo Made no Koji Buddhist Temple, whose founder was Incho, added the character "in" to their names, and this school came to be known as the In school. The official names of these Buddhist temples also indicate their locations in Kyoto. Thanks to the efforts of Insuke, Inkaku, and Inson, this school once showed signs of dominating the world of Buddhist statue making. Their style was in keeping with the flow of Japanese sculpture, and appeared to be gentle and dignified, but on the other hand it was traditionally formalized and lacked rigor in its form. For this reason, although they met the tastes of the Fujiwara aristocrats, who sought visual beauty, they were not to the liking of the Kamakura samurai class, and also because no capable figures emerged after Inson, the style gradually declined after the revival of the two great temples of Nara in the early Kamakura period, and it only survived by being made out of habit by the older cultural classes, such as the aristocracy.

[Akio Sato]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

平安後期から鎌倉、室町時代にかけて続いた仏師の系統の通称。仏師の祖といわれた定朝(じょうちょう)の孫にあたる院助を祖とする七条大宮仏所、およびその分派たる院朝を祖とする六条万里小路(までのこうじ)仏所に属する仏師たちは、その名に院の字を付する者が多いので、後世この流派を院派とよんでいる。また、これらの仏所の正式名称は京都における所在地を示している。この派は院助、院覚、院尊らの活躍もあって、一時は造仏界に君臨する勢いをも示した。その作風は和様彫刻の流れをくんで、やさしく品格のあるもののようであったが、反面伝統的な形式化したもので、造形的な厳しさに欠けるところがあった。そのため見た目の美しさを求める藤原貴族の趣向にかなってはいても、鎌倉武士階級の好みではなく、また院尊以後実力者の出なかったことも原因して、鎌倉時代初頭の南都二大寺の復興を転機にしだいに衰え、貴族階級など旧文化層のなかで惰性的に造像をすることで余命を保った。

［佐藤昭夫］

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