Keywords
Art History
Sculpture
Also shiisō. Lit. "meditative posture." A position used in Buddhist images to symbolize thinking, where the fingers of the right hand lightly touch the right cheek. Shiyuisō is used on *Miroku 弥勒 figures of the Asuka and Hakuhō periods (6th-7th century). Often this hand position is used together with the half-cross-legged posture *hanka fuza 半跏趺座. A good example is the Miroku statue (wood, Asuka period) in Chūgūji 中宮寺, Nara.