Rethinking Asuka Sculpture

WU Hong, Ph.D. (2020), University of Vienna, is assistant professor of Philosophy of Art and Art History at Fudan University. She has published several articles on East Asian Buddhist art and Chinese art of the medieval period.

• ChronologyList of CharactersList of Maps, Tables, and Figures1 Introduction1 Reconsidering the Traditional Chronology2 Shifting from the China-Centered to the Asuka Perspective3 Structure of the BookPart 1: The Catalogue2 Tracing an Organic Stylistic Sequence1 Group I2 Group II3 Group III4 Group IV5 ConclusionPart 2: A Revised Chronology3 Weighing the Archaeological and Historical Evidence1 Advent of Buddhist Practice in Japan2 The East Asian Context3 Direct Buddhist Contacts with China4 Opportunity for Rethinking the Chronology4 Reevaluating Buddhist Art in Korean Three Kingdoms1 Textual and Archaeological Survey2 Reconsidering the Fifty-Year Lag between the Korean Three Kingdoms and Chinese Dynasties3 A History of Korean Three Kingdoms Buddhist Art Historiography5 A Revised Chronology1 How the Traditional Chronology Became Established2 Reconsidering the Anchor Statues3 The Hōryūji Kondō Shaka Triad: a Close Study4 A Revised ChronologyPart 3: A New Account of Asuka Buddhism6 A Tentative Beginning: 550–6001 Features Neither Continental nor Local2 Understanding the Earliest Buddhist Sculptors3 A Hesitant Beginning7 Vibrant Transformation: 600–6501 The Shiba Story Continued2 A Multiplicity of Other Sculptural Modes3 The Buddhist Boom8 New Technological Development: 650–7101 Piece-Mold versus Lost-Wax Methods2 From the Direct to the Indirect Method3 Interpreting the Technological Change9 Conclusion1 Rethinking Asuka Buddhist Art2 Looking Forward: the Yakushi Triad and BeyondReference MatterList of Extant Asuka Buddhist StatuesAbbreviations for Catalogue TitlesBibliographyIndex