Japanese Buddhist Sculptors

Sculptors of the Kei school, the workshop lineage that flourished in the Kamakura period of Japan, who carved the wooden statues of the Buddha and other Buddhist figures with a new realism and strength. The school takes its name from the many sculptors whose artistic names end in the syllable kei. Unkei and Kaikei, the best known masters, worked on the great Buddha figures of Nara and Kyoto, and their style, with its inset crystal eyes, careful carving and lifelike drapery, shaped Japanese Buddhist sculpture for centuries.