Page 31 - 2021 March 16th Japanese and Korean Art, Christie's New York City

This sculpture passed through the hands of one of Japan’s
premier art dealers, Mayuyama & Co. in Kyobashi, Tokyo.
Mayuyama Matsutaro (1882-1935) founded the company in
Peking in 1905 and then moved its headquarters to Tokyo
in 1916. The Kannon sculpture, after having been sold by
Mayuyama to a Swiss collector in the postwar era, returned
to Japan in the early 1980s and entered an important
private collection in Tokyo.

Heian-period sculptures, especially of this size, rarely
appear on the art market. It is likely a mid-eleventh-century
work made in the style of earlier examples.

Kannon, the bodhisattva of mercy, was popular from a very
early period. He often holds a lotus flower or water vessel,
now lost, in his raised left hand, which is likely a restoration—
the armbands and bracelets on the left and right arms do
not match. As in early Heian sculptures, the main part of
the head and body was carved from a single block of wood,
revealing the beautiful grain of the wood. In early works,
the modeling of the body and drapery was accentuated by
the rolling-wave drapery folds (hompa-shiki), with roundly
carved large waves alternating with sharply edged small
waves. By the mid-eleventh century, those features are
softened and flattened: the honpa-shikifolds between the
legs in the sculpture shown here are less pronounced. The
lingering influence of the tenth century can be found in the
fleshy chest and stomach. However, the smaller size of the
head and somewhat benign expression, as well as the two-
dimensional drapery and the highly attenuated lower torso
indicate a date no earlier than the mid-eleventh century. A
site with many standing bodhisattvas of similar date is
Rakuya-ji Temple in Shiga prefecture.

Dramatic in scale, this elegant and graceful Kannon, with
its slight contrapposto stance hinting at movement, and
the suggestion of a smile, is quite irresistible.