Page 36 - 2021 March 16th Japanese and Korean Art, Christie's New York City

22 A CARVED WOOD SCULPTURE OF A DEER

MEIJI PERIOD (LATE 19TH CENTURY), ATTRIBUTED TO MORIKAWA TOEN
(1820-1894)
Carved and painted as a deer, applied with
detachable antlers with fine details, eyes inlaid
in galss
15æ in. (40 cm.) long
With wood box inscribed Neiraku Toen saku
shika okimono

$5,000-7,000

According to legend, the god of Kasuga Shrine in Nara
arrived in the eighth century riding on the back of a deer.
Deer were subsequently venerated as messengers of the
gods or kami at the shrine and still roam freely around the
city's temples and shrines. Deer are even the subject of
a popular type of devotional painting. There are at least
forty extant paintings of a white or chestnut-colored
sacred deer, standing on a cloud and carrying a sacred
tree mounted on its decorated saddle. The tree supports
a large golden disc, or mirror, with images of the five main
Kasuga deities in their Buddhist forms. A painting of
Sacred Deer of Kasuga Shrine is in the collection of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, (fig. 1).
Born in Nara Prefecture, Toen first apprenticed to the
painter, Naito Kien who was well-known for his deer
painting and later to Okano Hohaku to learn wood carving.
He was appointed as Kasugausoku Nara ningyoshi (Sculptor
to the Kasuga Shrine) in 1856. Toen was known for his
sculptures of deer and produced sculptures of Sacred
Deer for the Kasuga Shrine. He participated domestic and
international expositions, including the World’s Columbian
Exposition in Chicago in 1893.