A GILT-LACQUERED WOOD ZUSHI (PORTABLE SHRINE) HOUSING KISHIMOJIN WITH HER CHILD, LATE EDO PERIOD
Lot 65 - AK0126

Japan, 19th century, late Edo period (1615-1868)

The goddess is finely carved, depicted standing atop an elaborate, tiered stand decorated with shaped panels containing floral designs and scenes with turbulent waters. Her right hand holding a short scepter in the form of a pomegranate, while her left supports a small child swathed in voluminous drapery. She is dressed in a loosely draped robe, cascading from her shoulders, with wide sleeves, intricately painted with additional pomegranate motifs. Her rounded face with a serene expression, marked by heavy-lidded, downcast eyes beneath gently arched brows, a slender nose, and full lips. Her long hair arranged in a high chignon that falls over her shoulders, secured by a gilt tiara, and framed by a circular kohai (aureole).

The shrine of typical form, the exterior finished in a lustrous red-lacquered ground with copper fittings including shaped hinges, while the interior is richly lacquered in gold, heightening the sacred presence of the image within.

HEIGHT 33.3 cm

Provenance: From a private collection in the Netherlands.
Condition: Good condition with wear. The shrine with typical rubbing to gilding and losses to pigments. Few minor nicks and light surface scratches. Minor nibbling along the edges.

Kishimojin, also known as Kariteimo (in Sanskrit, Hariti), is a Buddhist guardian of children and a revered figure associated with the Lotus Sutra. According to tradition, she was originally a fearsome spirit who kidnapped children to feed them to her own offspring. Confronted with the immense suffering her actions caused, she embraced the teachings of Buddhism and renounced her violent ways. Thereafter, Kishimojin devoted herself to the protection and well-being of all children, becoming a compassionate and vigilant maternal figure whose worship spread widely across Japan and East Asia.

Japanese Buddhist images are frequently housed within zushi, portable or fixed wooden shrines equipped with doors that permit the deity to be alternately disclosed or concealed. These casket-like enclosures embodied a distinctly Japanese adaptation of Buddhist devotional practice. Scholars have posited that the custom may ultimately derive from Shinto precedents, wherein sacred presences are seldom represented in anthropomorphic form and are traditionally veiled from direct view.