18th Century Antique Sculpture of Daikokuten, Japanese God of Luck and Prosperity

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Daikoku is a Japanese deity of Buddhism and Shinto. He is one of the Seven Lucky Gods (Shichifukujin) and associated … Read more Daikoku is a Japanese deity of Buddhism and Shinto. He is one of the Seven Lucky Gods (Shichifukujin) and associated with wealth, prosperity, and good fortune. He is also a god of the household, agriculture, fertility, sexuality and war. The formal name for Daikoku is Daikokuten, originated from Mahākāla, the Buddhist version of the Hindu deity Shiva, conflated with the native Shinto god Ōkuninushi. He is portrayed as a jolly fellow, with a bag of grain over his shoulder and holding a mallet.

The statue of Daikoku is a fine piece of sculpture from the Edo Period (CE 1603 to 1868.) Due to the scarcity of large pieces of wood, this sculpture is made of several pieces put together perfectly by hidden joinery that are still holding the object together after 200 years or more. (Photo of the base clearly shows how the statue is put together.) The sculptor was talented in his craft in sculpting the statue. He has a pleasant face, immense body befitting of him bringing wealth and prosperity to all, graceful flowing garment patterns and good details everywhere. It was an object of worship at one point, his nose was touched frequently resulting in a change in patina.

Daikoku was once an object of worship. Kanji (Chinese script) were written all along his back, on the bag he carried as well. The ink has faded which made it hard to read. However, the lines of inscriptions written in black ink are quite legible. Not being a student of Japanese history, I am not familiar of the reign dates of the Edo Emperors or Shoguns, so I cannot offer solid proof of dates. However, I can offer this much information: the Japanese share the Chinese use of the 60 year cycle or cyclical dates, two characters for each year in the 60 year cycles. The possible dates are 1689, 1749 or 1809. A little more research may yield a more accurate dating.
Since this posting, I was fortunate to have the inscription translated. The art historian who helped me out said the Daikokuten was a privately customized sculpture. It is likely that the worshippers donated money and asked the monks of a temple to customize this work. The craftsman replace the signature with a special symbol shown on the last pictorial mark. The method is what Japanese artisans learned from the use of symbols in Chinese porcelain imported during the 16th - 17 centuries. The inscription can be roughly translated in the following: Produced at the cautious request in the second Kanyan Year (the lunar yisi year of=1749,) the eighth month (the lunar genzi month) when oranges are ripe and leaves are sparse. From all the abbots.
1749 fell within the reign of the Emperor Momozono, whose reign spanned from 1747 to 1762 of the Edo Period CE 1603 - 1867. See less