Page 90 - Bonhams September 11 2018 New York Japanese & Korean Works of Art

(another view)

PROPERTY OF VARIOUS OWNERS First appearing in India as Lashmi, consort to the Hindu deity
Vishnu, Kichijoten (also called Kudokuten) is usually represented
1183 in Japanese Buddhist sculpture as a finely dressed high-born lady
A LARGE AND RARE WOOD FIGURE OF KICHIJOTEN of the Chinese Tang court, as befits her role as an icon of wealth,
fertility, and good fortune, with her hands in the two gestures seen
(MAHASRI) here; the “wish-granting” jewel that she normally holds distinguishes
Kamakura period (1185-1333), 13th/14th century her from Benzaiten (another female deity of Indian origin). Worship of
The torso and head carved from a single block of wood, the arms Kichijoten in Japan was already widespread in the eighth century and
separately carved and assembled, the goddess of beauty, fertility, among the earliest and best preserved surviving sculptural examples
and virtue shown in flowing Tang-dynasty-style robes, shoes, and of this iconography are a figure in the Taimadera Temple, Nara
head dress, the voluminous sleeves draped over her hands, the left (normally on loan to Tokyo National Museum) dating from the tenth
hand raised to hold a wish-granting jewel (now lost), traces of bright century, another of about the same date in the permanent collections
red pigment still visible on the inside of the sleeves, the eyes inlaid in of Tokyo National Museum (inv. no. C0055109) that was originally
crystal; set on a later wood stand carved with rockwork in the Omiya Shrine, Kyoto, and a third in the Horyuji Temple, Nara
36 1/2in (92.7cm) high, figure only; 39 3/4in (100.9cm) high overall (1078). Later versions, seated rather than standing but otherwise
closer stylistically closer to the present lot are in the Fukkoenji
$30,000 - 50,000 Temple, Yamanashi Prefecture (1231) and the Kofukuji Temple, Nara
(by the sculptor Kankei, 1340).

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