Kei school

Based in Nara, it was the dominant school in Buddhist sculpture in Japan into the 14th century, and remained influential until the 19th.

Art historian Joan Stanley Baker cites the Kei school's early works as the last highpoint in the history of Japanese sculpture.

The Kei school was granted the opportunity to restore Nara's greatest temples, the Tōdai-ji and Kōfuku-ji, replacing their Buddhist sculptures.

[2] The Tōdai-ji restoration project lasted several generations, from roughly 1180 to 1212,[3] and drew extensively on Tenpyō style in Nara period, introducing new stylistic elements while remaining true to tradition.

[1] For the first time, crystals with dark centers were used for the eyes of statues; while the Kei school style recalls elements of Nara period sculpture, Joan Stanley Baker describes the Kei school works as less idealized, generic, and impersonal than Nara works.