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Page count: 726

This dissertation examines the construction of the bronze Sakyamuni triad at a Buddhist temple Hôryûji (Nara Prefecture, Japan). Presently enshrined in the temple's golden hall, this statue is datable to 623 through an accompanied inscription. Its elegance and painstaking detail make this work a masterpiece of Buddhist sculpture, and the best example of the early production of Buddhist images in Japan. This study examines the construction of this statue from four different angles, aiming to present a comprehensive picture of its social, religious, and political functions in the context of the early seventh century. It demonstrates the following. The golden hall Sakyamuni triad was patronized by the members of the Kashiwade clan not simply to privately pray for and commemorate the death of the three donees, but to serve the political function of strengthening its family ties to the most powerful members of their extended family, the Soga clan and the Imperial family. To serve this function, the statue was designed to appeal specifically to the Buddhist ideology shared and endorsed by Soga no Umako, Empress Suiko, and the newly deceased Prince Umayato.