428 - SHAKA NYORAI WITH ATTENDANTS

SHAKA NYORAI WITH ATTENDANTS Japan, early Edo period Ink, colour and gold on silk, mounted as a hanging scroll. Shaka Nyorai, the historical Buddha, seated in meditation upon a lotus throne raised on a stepped pedestal before a double halo, the robes finely drawn in gold against a brown-gold ground, flanked by Fugen Bosatsu seated upon a white elephant to the left and Monju Bosatsu upon a lion to the right, surrounded by the ten great disciples and a host of guardian deva bearing attributes, the brocade mounts with gilt foliate scrolls. The delicate rendering of the hands, and the individual treatment of each figure’s eyes, the two eyes set fractionally out of alignment to animate the gaze, point to the hand of a highly accomplished painter. Japan, early Edo period Accompanied by a wood box and an old manuscript recording that the painting was offered (hōnō) to a Dainichi-dō in the Tōnō district of Mino province (present-day Gifu prefecture) on the fifteenth day of the second month of the fourth year of Kaei (1851), the donor named as Murai Kanezane and the document respectfully written by the officiating priest of hōin rank, Eitan. The date refers to the dedication of the painting to the temple rather than to its execution. L: 96.5cm W: 41.3cm / hanging scroll / silk Japan, Edo period