YAMASHITA Hidetaka

Wakei Nagaoka is a sculptor born in Takikawa City, Hokkaido, in 1955 and currently living in Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture. He entered the world of stone carving at age 22 with the encouragement of his older brother Kizan, also a sculptor, and has since produced more than 860 stone Buddhist images and other stone statues. His representative works include the six aspects of Jizo, the acolyte of Mount Sumeru owned by the British Museum (UK), the emperor and empress dolls owned by the Leipzig Museum of Ethnology (Germany), the Salvation Buddha statue at the Jodo Mission of Hawaii, the eleven-faced Kannon at Todai-ji Temple, the Dengyo Daishi Saicho image at Hieizan Enryaku-ji Temple, the Zen Master Dogen image at Eihei-ji Temple, the Vairocana statue at Mii-dera Temple, and the Child Kannon at Zenko-ji Temple. He published a photo collection of Buddhist sculptures by the Nagaoka brothers in 1990; received with his brother the title of Master Sculptor of Buddhist Images from Mii-dera Temple, a large head temple of Buddhism, in 2000, becoming the world’s first stone sculptor to receive the title; published his book titled “Carving Stone Buddhas” in 2001; raised the immortal Hibari Misora statue near the Shioya Cape lighthouse in 2002; set up a monument inscribed with a poem by Shuntaro Tanikawa on the top of Mount Sangane in 2008; received with his brother the title of Master Sculptor of Buddhist Images from Kyoto Sanzen-in Temple in 2010; and published his book titled “The World of Wakei Nagaoka” in 2011. In 2020, he was awarded a grand prize in sculpture category in the 60th Japan Art Selection. In the same year, his sculpture work of a man kicking a ball was installed at the Sanga Stadium by Kyocera. His unique style of stone carving with uncompromising attention to detail is well appreciated. He serves as a director of the Japan Association for Stone Buddhist Images.