A large and rare wood figure of Kichijoten (Mahasri)


Kamakura period (1185-1333), 13th/14th centuryThe torso and head carved from a single block of wood, the arms separately carved and assembled, the goddess of beauty, fertility, and virtue shown in flowing Tang-dynasty-style robes, shoes, and head dress, the voluminous sleeves draped over her hands, the left hand raised to hold a wish-granting jewel (now lost), traces of bright red pigment still visible on the inside of the sleeves, the eyes inlaid in crystal; set on a later wood stand carved with rockwork 36 1/2in (92.7cm) high, figure only; 39 3/4in (100.9cm) high overall
|First appearing in India as Lashmi, consort to the Hindu deity Vishnu, Kichijoten (also called Kudokuten) is usually represented in Japanese Buddhist sculpture as a finely dressed high-born lady of the Chinese Tang court, as befits her role as an icon of wealth, fertility, and good fortune, with her hands in the two gestures seen here; the "wish-granting" jewel that she normally holds distinguishes her from Benzaiten (another female deity of Indian origin). Worship of Kichijoten in Japan was already widespread in the eighth century and among the earliest and best preserved surviving sculptural examples of this iconography are a figure in the Taimadera Temple, Nara (normally on loan to Tokyo National Museum) dating from the tenth century, another of about the same date in the permanent collections of Tokyo National Museum (inv. no. C0055109) that was originally in the Omiya Shrine, Kyoto, and a third in the Horyuji Temple, Nara (1078). Later versions, seated rather than standing but otherwise closer stylistically closer to the present lot are in the Fukkoenji Temple, Yamanashi Prefecture (1231) and the Kofukuji Temple, Nara (by the sculptor Kankei, 1340).