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Japanese
Wood Sculpting
The LACMA Jizo figure exemplifies
the yosegi-zukuri (joined block) method: the head, front,
and back of the body are three separate pieces of wood that have
been joined. This allows the grain of the wood, which follows
the contours of the body, to be emphasized. This emphasis is
still evident even though the attractive flow of the grain would
have been masked by lacquering. Ichiboku-zukuri, the
earlier, single-block method of carving, limited the size of
figures, increased the time it took to make them, did not
complement the wood grain, and caused figures to crack over
time. Yosegi-zukuri overcame these problems and also allowed for
relics to be placed in the hollowed interior of the figure.
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