Biography
木喰明満上人 · Mokujiki Myōman Shōnin · 1718–1810
- 1718Birth
Birth in Yamanashi
Mokujiki Myōman (木喰明満) was born in Ōta village (大田村), Koma District (巨摩郡), Kai Province — present-day Minobu-chō, Yamanashi Prefecture. His family name was Tabata (田畑). The date 1718 is the most widely accepted birth year among scholars, though some sources, including the December 2024 issue of 民藝 (no. 864), propose 1735. The discrepancy may reflect different methods of interpreting the autobiographical records left inscribed on his works.
- 1737–177319–55
Early renunciation and pilgrimages
At age 19, Mokujiki took his first religious vows. He undertook repeated pilgrimages across Japan, including circuits of the thirty-three Kannon pilgrimage sites and the eighty-eight Shikoku temples. In 1762 he climbed Mt. Fuji and remained on Fuji-san for extended ascetic practice. He took a disciple, Mokujiki Gyōdō (木喰行道), with whom he later travelled north.
- 1773–177955–61
Northern journey and wood-eating vow (木食戒)
At age 55, Mokujiki formally entered the practice of mokujiki-kai (木食戒) — an ascetic regimen of renouncing the five grains and salt, subsisting on tree seeds, nuts, and grasses, preparing food without fire. He travelled northward through Tōhoku to Hokkaidō with Gyōdō. An early surviving work, a painted Buddhist figure at Dōden-ji (道傳寺) in Rokunohe-machi, Aomori, dates to 安永6年 (1778), when he was 61.
- 1779–180061–82
Proliferation of the vow: 千体之内
Returning south, Mokujiki began inscribing his works with a serial formula 千体之内 ("within a vow of one thousand bodies"), marking each sculpture as part of a sustained devotional pledge to carve one thousand Buddhas. His earliest securely dated surviving sculpture, a 206 cm Jizō Bosatsu at Hōzōji (宝蔵寺) in Yakumo, Hokkaidō, is inscribed 安永9年 (1780). He carved through Yamanashi and Nagano (1785–1786), Kyūshū (1789–1797), Yamaguchi and Ehime (1797–1799), and the Tōtōmi region around Fujieda and Hamamatsu (1799–1800).
- 1800–180682–88
Minobu and the second thousand
The years around 1800–1802 represent a period of sustained activity at Minobu-chō (his birthplace area) and the Fujieda–Yaizu corridor of Shizuoka. By 1801 he was keeping works at the Japan Folk Crafts Museum's predecessor collections. By 1804–1805 he was in Niigata, producing large sets of hanging-scroll Kannon paintings. In 1806 he visited Seigenji (清源寺) in Yagi, Nantan-shi (Kyoto Prefecture) — a five-month stay yielding 28 sculptures. The Shakyamuni Nyorai carved there is identified by the temple as the 千体目, the thousandth work of the 千体之内 series.
- 1807–180889–90
Transition to 二千躰之内 and Inagawa
In 1807–1808 Mokujiki was in the Inagawa-chō area of Hyōgo Prefecture, carving at Tennyūji (天乳寺) — including a self-portrait and two Bosatsu figures carved from a single split pine — and at Tōkōji (東光寺), where he installed a complete Ten Kings of Hell programme (13 works) in the Yakushidō. At Kyōan-ji (教安寺) in Kōfu in 1808 he began using a new serial inscription: 二千躰之内 ("within a vow of two thousand bodies"), marking the transition to his second-thousand pledge.
- 1808–181090–93
Final years and death
Mokujiki continued carving under 二千躰之内 until the end of his life. He died in 1810 (Bunka 7) at the age of 93 — still on pilgrimage — at an inn in Kaminokawa-juku (壬生宿?), Shimotsuke Province (present-day Tochigi). His final works bear his characteristic smiling style, increasingly referred to as the 微笑仏 ("smiling Buddha") by later scholars. Yanagi Sōetsu, who discovered the tradition in 1924 at Kyōan-ji, would later call this quality mushin (無心, "no-mind") — a state of unselfconscious grace made visible in the wood.
- 1924–Rediscovery
Yanagi's rediscovery and the Mingei movement
On 11 June 1924 Yanagi Sōetsu visited Kyōan-ji in Niigata and encountered its Mokujiki collection. He published extensively in 1925 (研究 and photo-book) and 1926 (waka selection), crediting Mokujiki's works as the catalyst for his concept of the innate beauty of Japan (koyūna nihon no bi). The 1925 exhibition in Marunouchi (documented in the Starr Collection at UC Berkeley) brought the works to public attention. Mokujiki became central to the Mingei movement's argument for the aesthetic validity of anonymous, devotional craft. Over 1,000 surviving works are known across Japan; the largest single concentrations are in Yamanashi, Niigata, Kyoto, and Aomori prefectures.
Sources: Yanagi Sōetsu (1925, 1926, 1943); Hase Hōshū (1914); Kikuchi (1997); Fujii (2021); Yamanashi Prefectural Museum exhibition list (2015); Inagawa Town walking map (2014); Kouhou Nantan (2007); 民藝 no. 864 (2024). Dates marked † are approximate or subject to scholarly dispute.