A LARGE AND UNUSUAL ‘LOTUS LEAF’ ZUSHI WITH A RARE GILT-LACQUERED WOOD FIGURE OF HOKAN AMIDA NYORAI, 17TH-18TH CENTURY
Lot 158 - JPN0625

Japan, 17^th-18^th century, Edo period (1615-1868)

Finely carved seated in dhyanasana atop a lotus throne raised on an elaborate tiered base, his hands lowered in mida jo-in, wearing long flowing robes with richly carved folds and billowing shawls, adorned with a metal munakazari (necklace) and with a hokan (crown) suspending glass beads, his face sensitively modeled in a meditative expression with downcast eyes and large byakugo inlaid in crystal, backed by the kohai composed of two overlapping circular halos, and with a crystal urna.

Set within a later wood shrine with a roof neatly carved as an upturned lotus leaf with central stem, raised veins, and gently furled edges, above the double-folding doors and a small drawer, with metal hinges of foliate form with pierced decoration, lobed form, a small drawer, supported on four short bracket feet, the interior with a frame painted with gold dharma wheels and multi-colored scrolling vines against a blue ground.

HEIGHT 46 cm (the figure), 87 cm (the shrine)

Condition: Very good condition with minor wear, the figure with minor touchups to gilding and small repairs to hands, minor flaking to lacquer, rubbing to gilt, the figure glued to the base, the shrine with small chips to exposed areas and light surface scratches.

Images of the crowned Amida (Hokan Amida) are exceedingly rare as Nyorai are usually not depicted with crowns or high chignon. Well-known examples include the principal image of an Amida triad in the Joukoumyouji Temple, Kanagawa prefecture, a seated Amida Nyorai from the Kamakura Period at Hidenin, a sub-temple of Sennyuji in Kyoto's Higashiyama Ward, and another dated to the 13^th century in the Zaika-ji Temple in Toyokawa, Aichi, exhibited in New Life for Timeless Art, Tokyo National Museum, 1 October-1 December 2019. See also a 13^th-century scroll depicting the crowned Amida in the Cleveland Museum of Art, accession number 1971.164.