Page 66 - Bonhams Auction NYC Japanese and Korean Art March 15, 2017
P. 66
SCULPTURE FROM THE GITTER-YELEN COLLECTION
6148 Although previously described generically as gyoji (Shinto priests),
A PAIR OF WOOD ZUISHIN (ATTENDANT FIGURES) these lively, assertive figures seem more likely to belong to a group
Kamakura (1185-1333) or Muromachi (1333-1573) period, of awe-inspiring pairs of figures called zuishin that were placed at the
13th-14th century entrances to shrines during the medieval period; this identification
Each carved from a single block of wood and originally seated on a is supported by the fact that the mouth of one is very slightly open,
dais or similar support in a formal pose, one with his hands together uttering the syllable a, while that of the other is closed, uttering the
and the other with his hands resting symmetrically on his knees, they syllable un, features copied from the more familiar pairs of Buddhist
wear voluminous formal robes and lacquered hats, the facial features Nio (Guardian Kings). The earliest pair of zuishin, registered as
well preserved, both with extensive traces of black pigment especially Important Cultural Properties and datable to 1162 from inscriptions
on the reverse, the figure with hands together with linear patterns on scraps of paper found inside the figures, is in the Takano Shrine,
suggesting the decoration of his robes, the timber with numerous Tsuyama, Okayama Prefecture. As noted in a commentary to
wormholes but otherwise largely intact; each with a modern steel another pair of zuishin dating from circa 1219 (also Important Cultural
stand Properties) in the Kamitami Shrine, Kagawa, "the wrath of Shinto
29 1/8 and 29 1/2in (74 and 75cm) high guardians is generally more contained and their pose less animated
than that of their Buddhist counterparts, the Nio."1
US$40,000 - 60,000 1 Haruki Kageyama and Christine Guth Kanda, Shinto Arts: Nature,
Gods, and Man in Japan, New York, Japan Society, 1976, cat. no. 6.
64 | BONHAMS
