The wooden statue of St. Mary: ‘St. Mary of Hara Castle’
St. Mary of Hara Castle
The wooden statue over 10 meters high which sculptor Eiji Oyamatsu has been carving for about 40 years to console and remember all those who died in Shimabara and Amakusa during the Shimabara- Amakusa rebellion in 1637-38 . This statue is seen as a national treasure-class work, being one of the largest wood carvings in the world and is extremely valuable from an artistic point of view. One might even say it is a world treasure. The sculptor decided to make a statue of St. Mary for the memorial service at the occation of Pope John Paul II’s first visit to Japan in 1981. Starting with a small prototype, he then proceeded to build the current large version constructed by giant camphor trees. The statue is to be completed soon, and was named “St. Mary of Hara Castle” by him. It is the wish of the sculptor that the statue will console the souls of the many who died at the Shimabara rebellion and will also inspire the future development of Minamishimabara city.
Sculptor Eiji Oyamatsu
Born in Sado City, Niigata Prefecture (formerly Ryotsu City) in 1934. Lives in Fujisawa City, Kanagawa Prefecture.
He studied under Takashi Shimizu and Choshu Hashimoto and completed the Graduate School of Sculpture, Musashino Art University in 1961. He received a special prize at the Japan Fine Arts Exhibition in 1978 and 1983. In 1981, he created a first wooden sculpture of St. Mary and dedicated it to Pope John Paul II. In 1990, 1997 and 2004, he served as a judge for Japan Fine Arts Exhibition. At the 43rd Japan Fine Arts Exhibition in 2011, he received the highest award, the Prime Minister’s Award, for “Shunrai (Spring Thunder)”.
Image gallery, the wooden statue of St. Mary
and “St. Mary of Hara Castle” became about 10m tall.
The protruding part on the 3rd floor is handmade by Mr. Oyamatsu, and the face of the statue of Mary is contained in this part.
Production scenery
One day, when he was thinking about how to make the 10 meters statue of St. Mary, in what seemed a dream like state, he came up with the idea of “Azekura-zukuri”, which is made by cutting large camphor trees into round slices and interlocking them on top of each other. It is an ancient Japanese building technique.
※ Click the image to enlarge.