Fudō Myōō is known as the Indomitable Foe of Evil in the
Buddhist pantheon. Literally, his name means The Undefeatable
Enlightened King of Buddhism. In the face of evil and falsehood,
he is unyielding, unbeatable, indefatigable, and immovable.
Created in circa 1125 by a master of Buddhist sculpture, Fudō is
carved from one solid block of rare Zelkova wood. He holds a
sword to cut through illusion and a rope to bind up devils and
demons. Amazingly, the arms, hands, and hair braid are all
original and unrestored, as can be easily proved by examining
the unbroken fine wood grain across the sculpture, down to the
tips of the fingers on each hand. In Japan, it is extremely rare
that a previously unknown and unrecorded twelfth-century wood
sculpture comes to light, as this one has in the last year. This
has led to speculation by the leading scholars of Japanese
Buddhist art that this remarkable image was long hidden away as
a “Secret Buddha” (Hibutsu) in an enclosed shrine, which would
explain its astonishing condi