One of the cool things to see at the Matsuoka Museum of Art in Shirokanedai is a grey schist statue of a Seated Buddha. The statue is estimated to have been created in the 3rd-4th Century A.D. from Gandhara, possibly in the Sahr-i-Bahlol area.
Ghandara is the ancient name of what is now known as the Peshawar Valley which are now parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The ruling dynasty of the time were the Kushans (one of the five aristocratic tribes of the Yuezhi, an ancient Indo-European people described in Chinese history as nomadic pastoralists living in arid grassland areas in thew estern part of the Chinese province of Gansu).
The great emperor of the Kushan Dynasty was Kanishka the Great (second century 127-150 CE) who was a heavy believer in Buddhism which played an important role in the development of the Silk Road and the transmission of Mahayana Buddhism from Gandhara to China.
As for Seri Bahlol, the location is a historical place that is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1980 and there are many known Buddhist ruins/remains which have not been excavated but illegal excavation in the land unfortunately has transpired in the area for generations, so the widespread damage to historical remains is unclear. Especially how much of these artifacts have made it from locals hands and sold off to antique dealers.
For the most part, the statue is 80% intact, missing is part of Buddha’s left knee, a chip on the right hand and part of the background on the left of Sitting Buddha’s head.
The grey schist (a schist is a medium-grade metamorphic rock) of Seated Buddha is common among Buddha statues created between the 3rd to 4th Century A.D.
And for the Ghandara location, what is known is that Buddha art is known from Ghandaran art, which was heavily influenced by Greco-Roman style sculpture (thus the Roman style of facial characteristic). To this day, there has not been any art discovered of Buddha between 1st or 2nd century.
But Ghandaran art is known of Buddha is known for the robe draped around the shoulder across the body, the hair of Buddha is typically in a bun (known as ushnisha, the flame of supreme enlightenment) and the most significant feature is the urna (the third eye in the middle of the forehead).
While it looks banal (with many similar statues having been created), you have to admire the art of the statue, from the bottom section all the way up to Buddha’s hair and even the background, a lot of time went into the making of this statue and how intricate the chiseling of the schist was done in order to create this.
If anything, Ghandaran art is highly sought out by wealthy antique collectors, including the late Matsuoka Seijiro, who has one of the largest collections I have seen and is featured prominently at the Matsuoka Museum of Art.
Matsuoka was less interested in Buddha statues from Japan and more of statues in Asia and his collection of Bodhisattva and Buddha statues from Ghandara is impressive.
