Antique Japanese Carved Wood Bodhidharma Daruma Darmo Zen Master Statue 达摩禪師

Antique Japanese Carved Wood Buddha
Bodhidharma 达摩禪師
Daruma, Zen Patriarch
Origin: Japan. Circa: late 19th century
H 16.5 in. (42cm), W 7 in. (18cm), D 4 in. (10cm)
Faded lacquer, minor age cracks, overall good condition!

A spirited wood carving of the Japanese Zen Patriarch Daruma, the 6th Century Indian sage Bodhidharma, the blue-eyed Brahmin who arrived in China in A.D. 526. Darmo 达摩 is regarded as the chief of the Six Patriarchs of Buddhism. He teaches that perfection must be sought inward through meditation rather than outward observances. It is said that after the first nine years of prolonged meditation, Bodhidharma cuts off his eyelids and threw them on the ground where they flowered into the first green tea plants. Here in this representation of Bodhidharma, through the glass-eyes inlays, he looks out intensely in a wide stare, with striking vividness his expressive face gapes in almost alarmed exhilaration as the master draws up a smile. Realized in stylized realism, carved in round with fluid symmetry, and finish in burnished lacquer, the statue is a serene yet humorous avatar of the Zen Master. In honor of Daruma, to this day an early form of the tea ceremony is carried out in Zen monasteries in Japan.