Page 19 - japanese and korean art Utterberg Collection Christie's March 22 2022

涅槃寂静 | THE COLLECTION OF DAVID AND NAYDA UTTERBERG (LOTs 1-20)

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ATTRIBUTED TO EMPEROR SHIRAKAWA
(JAPAN, 12TH CENTURY)
Section of the Sutra of Contemplation on the Buddha of
Immeasurable Life (Kanmuryojukyo)
Fragment of handscroll mounted as a hanging scroll; malachite with
gold-ruled lines and painted decoration in gold and silver on paper
10º x 4º in. (26 x 10.8 cm.)
With a paper certificate of authentication (kiwame fuda) by Kanda
Doki (1633-1711)

$20,000-30,000
伝白河院筆 観無量寿経断簡 (蓮華王院切)

PROVENANCE:
Gogatsudo, Tokyo, 24 Aug. 2004
Pieces cut from this sutra, commonly known as the Rengeoingire
(“fragment from the Rengeoin Temple"), were among the most
sought after by collectors in the Momoyama and Edo periods. This
fragment was likely mounted in a tekagami album in the seventeenth
century. Another fragment, with five lines of calligraphy, is in the
Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, a
gift of Sylvan Barnet and William Burto in 2014. The fragments
are admired for the delicate painting of birds and butterflies in
the margins and the text is valued because of its attribution to the
Cloistered Emperor Shirakawa (r. 1027–86). This fragment, with
six lines of text written in malachite, may be the longest known
example. Marks in black ink were added later to assist with Japanese
reading of the Chinese. The Kanmuryojukyo is considered one of
the most significant sutras of the Pure Land Buddhist sect.

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