According to legend, in the spring of his second year, Prince Shōtoku (574–622) faced east and put his palms together in prayer to chant “Namu Butsu,” or “Homage to the Buddha.” This statue is a masterwork expressing the iconographic form emerging from that biographic episode, and it is thought to be one of the older examples of this type. The precociousness of Shōtoku’s perspicacity is revealed in his contrasting sharp expression and cherubic form.
 
NAITO WataruEnglish by Mary Lewine 
Buddhist Art Paradise: Jewels of the Nara National Museum. Nara National Museum, 2021.7, p.334, no.188. 

Here, a statue of Prince Shōtoku (574–622) takes an iconographic form derived from a legend about this early patron of Buddhism in Japan. When Prince Shōtoku turned one, according to this legend, he faced east and clasped his hands in prayer to offer a reverential salutation to the Buddha, chanting “Namu butsu,” a powerful phrase that can be translated as “homage to Buddha.” Statues in this iconographic form are mentioned in written records from the early Kamakura period (1185–1333), but only in the late Kamakura period did they proliferate.  
Audio guide 

 The statue was derived from the legend that the Prince Shōtoku clasped his hands in prayer toward an eastern direction to chant “Namubutsu” in spring when he became two years old. The statues as a single image of Namubutsu Taishi were dated back to the early Kamakura period in the literature, however the actual examples were increased after the late Kamakura period.
 
Shigeki Iwata 
Masterworks from the Nara Buddhist Sculpture Hall at the Nara National Museum. Nara National Museum, 2010, p.139, no.150.