AUGUST CONTEMPORARY, FINE ART, ANTIQUES
Lot 32:
Description
Professionally framed Japanese print of Kobo Daishi (Kukai) as a Boy (Chigo Daishi). In Frame measures 28"x42"x1.5". Weight 14.8 lbs. Kukai (774?835) was an influential religious leader responsible for introducing Shingon Buddhism, a form of Esoteric Buddhism, to Japan in the ninth century. After his death, K?kai received the name K?b? Daishi (Great Teacher of the Divine Law) and was revered as a saint. The inscription at the top of this painting is a quotation from the Goyuigo, a set of instructions believed to have been prepared by Kukai for his disciples. In the passage, Kukai describes a dream he had as a child in which he was carried aloft on an eight-petaled lotus flower to a heavenly realm where he conversed with various Buddhas. The practice of depicting religious leaders as children during miraculous moments in their lives would have been keenly reassuring to Buddhist devotees.
Condition: good
Share this lot:
