Page 402 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

The gilt bronze figure seen here was likely cre-
ated for a family shrine. Its iconography is fraught
with symbols of the linked Buddhist and Shinto
cosmologies (honji-suijaku) specific to the cult of
the Kasuga Shrine. On the deer's saddle stands a
sakaki (Cleyera japonica) branch, and centered in
the branch a sacred mirror to which are affixed
five smaller circular plaques, each with an incised
image of a Buddhist deity. The sakaki and mirror
figure centrally in the Japanese creation narrative.
Amaterasu Omikami, the Sun Goddess, retreated
to a cave in anger over the misbehavior of her
brother Susano-o, thus depriving the world of
light. She was eventually lured out again by the
sight of a mirror, jewel, and sword suspended
from a sakaki branch and dangled at the cave's
entrance. The sakaki is used in ceremonial invoca-
tion of indigenous gods, and the deer is here in-
tended to bespeak the presence of Takemikazuchi
no Mikoto. The mirror refers to Amaterasu and to
her infliction of darkness and restoration of light;
additionally, it is also a mishotai, a mirror incised
with Buddhist imagery, in this case images of the
five Buddhist deities (honji-butsu) correspondent
to the five tutelary Shinto deities of Kasuga
Shrine. Use of the sacred mirror in this fashion
became prominent from the eleventh century,
when the syncretic honji-suijaku theory estab-
lished systematic iconographic relationships
between Buddhist and Shinto deities, with the
latter identified as native Japanese manifestations
(suijaku) of the former (honji). In the Kasuga
cult the bodhisattva Jizo corresponds to Ame no
Koyane no Mikoto, Juichimen Kannon to Hime- 242
gami, Fukukenjaku Kannon or Shaka Nyorai GUARDIAN LION-DOG (KOMA INU) needed frequent replacement. At smaller wayside
(Sakyamuni Buddha) to Takemikazuchi no shrines wooden koma inu gave way to glazed
Mikoto, Yakushi Nyorai (Buddha of Healing) c. 1500 stoneware. In its ceramic form the koma inu
to Futsunishi no Mikoto, and the bodhisattva Japanese occurs only in Japan, where it has come to be
Monju to Kasuga Wakamiya. Seto ware associated with petition and thanksgiving.
For this unusually large image the mirror, height 19.7 (7 /4J Such ceramic sculptures were an early specialty
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branch, antlers, and body were all separately cast. Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Seto city of the Seto kilns, near Nagoya, and numerous
The deer stands on a stylized cloud formation examples exist, the earlier ones generally quite
constructed of wood covered by gesso and paint. lionlike, the later ones tending to a more doggy
The cloud evokes Buddhist raigo imagery (in Paired male and female lion-dog guardians (also appearance. Often, as with temple guardian fig-
which the compassionate Amida descends on a known as kara-shishi f Chinese lions) became ures in human form, one of the pair has its mouth
cloud to receive the soul of the deceased); its allu- common at the entrances to Shinto shrines from open, the other closed — referring to a and un,
sion to a deity in transit was most likely borrowed the thirteenth century. Two stone lions almost the first and last letters of the Sanskrit alphabet.
to refer also to Takemikazuchi no Mikoto's pas- seven feet high, made by Chinese artisans and The earliest dated sherd of such a figure was made
sage from Kashima to Nara. Paintings of mirror- installed at Todai-ji, the Great Eastern Temple of in 1324, but it is assumed that ceramic koma inu
bearing deer are numerous, but this masterfully Nara, in 1196, gave impetus to this practice. In were produced from the thirteenth century
crafted sculpture is unique in scale and precision. China the use of such guardian animals dates through the sixteenth.
j.u. from the Eastern Han dynasty (A.D. 25—220), The present koma inu is a sly, compact rendi-
and the type can be traced back to Mesopotamia, tion of the subject, with an even, straw-colored
whence it was assimilated into Buddhist iconogra- glaze often found on Seto ware of the Muromachi
phy, appearing on the bases of Buddhist sculptures period (1333-1573). Its mouth is firmly closed.
from Gandhara. S.E.L.
In Japan, which lacked suitable stone, wood was
the preferred sculptural medium, and the under-
standing and mastery of wood carving became
second nature to the Japanese sculptor. Since
koma inu, as gate guardians, were placed out-
doors, and wood tended to deteriorate rapidly
when exposed to the elements, the sculptures 243 not in exhibition

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