Hachiman, Seated Statue (Tokyo National Museum, Lent by Akana Hachimangu)

A seated wooden statue of Hachiman, the syncretic Shinto and Buddhist god of war and archery who became the tutelary deity of the samurai and the Minamoto clan, dated to the year 1326 in the Kamakura period. The statue is designated an Important Cultural Property of Japan and is lent to the Tokyo National Museum by Akana Hachimangu, the shrine that owns it. Hachiman's worship blended Shinto kami veneration with Buddhist devotion under the honji suijaku framework that identified kami as local manifestations of Buddhist deities, and images of Hachiman in Kamakura period sculpture, whether as a seated deity or as a Buddhist monk, reflect that syncretism directly.