Page 68 - Bonhams Auction NYC Japanese and Korean Art March 15, 2017
P. 68
6150 Philadelphia Museum of Art, Treasures of the Philadelphia Museum of
A LARGE STANDING FIGURE OF A SHINTO DEITY Art, 1973, p. 16; Sherman E. Lee, "A Hand and an Image of Wood,"
Heian period (794–1185), late 10th century Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 44 (Jan. 1957); Jack Sewell,
Carved from a single tree trunk, the stern facial expression "Four Newly Acquired Examples of Japanese Art," The Art Institute
characterized by a downturned mouth, arched eyebrows, and a of Chicago Quarterly, 52, no. 1 (Feb. 1958); and Henry Trubner,
prominent nose, below a flame-like coiffure, the naked torso simply Royal Ontario Museum: The Far Eastern Collection, 1968, cat. 102.
carved with a slightly protruding belly, the suggestion of a cloak-like See also Donald Jenkins, Masterworks in Wood: China and Japan,
garment around the shoulders, the skirt indicated by three folds in Portland Art Museum, 1976, cat. 57 (Honolulu Academy of Arts) and
relief and augmented by a few simple lines extending to just above the Hugo Munsterberg, Sculpture of the Orient, 1972, p. 135 (Brooklyn
knees, the back almost smooth except for lines below the collar and Museum). Another example in Denver Art Museum (inv. no. 1980.95)
above the skirt, the feet with traces of dark pigment indicating shoes, appears to have reached the United States separately from the group.
other traces of pigment particularly on the hair and the upper garment, It comprises the upper half only of a figure that must originally have
both arms and parts of both feet missing and with extensive old worm been close to six feet in height and carved from a single tree trunk.
damage; mounted on an antique wood stand
39 3/4in (101cm) high without stand; 45 1/8in (114.7cm)
high with stand
US$60,000 - 80,000 The first sculptural images of kami (Shinto deities), in contrast to
Buddhas, bodhisattavas, guardian kings, and other Buddhist deities,
Provenance were likely carved during the Nara period (710–794), when it is
Howard Hollis collection recorded that a statue was constructed of the kami Tado, who had
expressed a wish (communicated through a Buddhist monk) to follow
Published the Buddhist way of the Sanbo (Three Jewels).1 Like this lot, many
Hugo Munsterberg, Sculpture of the Orient, New York, Dover early statues of Shintō deities were fashioned from a single block of
Publications, 1972, p. 136 wood, typically harvested close to the locality where the kami was
Carolyn H. Wood, Art of China and Japan, Huntsville AL, Huntsville believed to reside and thus already imbued with its spirit power. In the
Museum of Art, 1977, cat. no. 283 absence of a tradition of Shinto image-making, Buddhist deities served
Stephen Addiss, Michael G. Cunningham and others, A Myriad as sources of imitation for these representations of Japan's native
of Autumn Leaves: Japanese Art from the Kurt and Millie Gitter deities and, as in the present case, the terrifying gods of esoteric
Collection, New Orleans Museum of Art 1983, cat. no. 109, which Buddhism were sometimes used as models. Here, the flaming hair
records that a radiocarbon test on this lot indicated a date in the recalls that of ninth-century Buddhist deities such as Gosanze Kongo,
third quarter of the tenth century. a fierce protector of the Buddhist law;2 the same hair is seen in the
figure in the Honolulu Academy of Arts (inv. no. 2788.1) and would
This numinous figure is one of a group of unusually large Shinto become especially associated with the syncretic Shinto-Buddhist deity
deities that appear to have reached the United States in the 1950s Zao Gongen.3
through the Mayuyama Company and are thought to be associated Due to understandable reluctance to give Shinto deities human form,
with religious cults active in the region southwest of present-day figures such as the present lot, especially those more than three feet
Tokyo, centered on the Izu Peninsula. Other members of the group in height, are exceptionally rare; its early date makes it an even more
are in a wide range of North American institutions and have been remarkable survival. It was likely preserved for centuries in the inner
extensively published, although not in the recent past. For illustrations sanctuary of a Shinto shrine, where it would have been little seen even
and discussions, see especially a series of articles by Shimizu Zenzo by the priests, except at an annual festival when the shrine deity would
entitled "Amerika, Kanada ni aru Nihon chokoku (Japanese Sculpture have been invoked to breathe new life into the timber. We can imagine
in America and Canada": Bukkyo geijutsu 126 (Sept. 1979), p. 84, the structure housing the figure falling slowly into disrepair, exposing it
fig. 68 (Art Institute of Chicago); Bukkyo Geijutsu 127 (Nov. 1979), to the elements and imbuing it with a natural, weathered appearance
pp. 110-111, figs. 163-165 (Honolulu Academy of Fine Arts); Bukkyo that seems entirely in character with Japan's native religion.
Geijutsu 127 (Nov. 1979), p. 107, fig. 150 (Brooklyn Museum, on loan 1. Victor Harris ed., Shinto: The Sacred Art of Ancient Japan, London,
from Cynthia H. Moore); Bukkyo Geijutsu 128 (Jan. 1980), p. 100, The British Museum Press, 2001, cat. no. 60; see also Christine Guth
fig. 194 (Philadelphia Museum of Art); and Bukkyo Geijutsu 128 (Jan. Kanda, Shinzo: Hachiman Imagery and Its Development, Cambridge,
1980), p. 113, fig. 247 (Royal Ontario Museum). MA, Harvard University Press, 1985, pp. 12-13.
Most of the figures are reproduced in Junkichi Mayuyama, Japanese 2. For an early pictorial example, see Elizabeth Ten Grotenhuis,
Art in the West, Tokyo: Mayuyama and Co. Ltd., 1966: nos. 24 Japanese Mandalas: Representations of Sacred Geography, Honolulu,
(Honolulu Academy of Arts), 25 (Royal Ontario Museum), 26 (Honolulu University of Hawai'i Press, 1999, p. 83.
Academy of Fine Arts), 27 (Art Institute of Chicago), 28 (Cleveland 3. For a 13th-century iron example in the John C. Weber collection,
Museum of Art), 29 (Philadelphia Museum of Art), and 30 (Honolulu see Asia Society, "Pilgrimage and Buddhist Art," http://pilgrimage.
Academy of Arts); see also Mayuyama, Seventy Years, 1976, vol. 2, asiasociety.org/artifacts/zao-gongen; see also Haruki Kageyama and
p. 165, figs. 334-335. Newer images can be found on some of the Christine Guth Kanda, Shinto Arts: Nature, Gods, and Man in Japan,
respective museum websites, as well as in older museum publications: New York, Japan Society, 1976, cat. no. 32.
66 | BONHAMS
