A JAPANESE SCROLL PAINTING OF THE PURE LAND OF AMIDA BUDDHA, TAIMA MANDALA

KAMAKURA PERIOD OR LATER, 13TH/14TH CENTURY OR LATER

In ink, colour and gold on paper, the Western Paradise made up of elaborate gardens, ponds and buildings, with numerous Bodhisattvas, tennin, divine musicians and attendants, presided over by Amida Buddha flanked by the Bodhisattvas Kannon and Seishi, the three figures seated on stepped lotus thrones at the centre of the composition; the lower section painted with Amida Nyorai and attendants descending on a devotee seated in an interior, possibly representing the wealthy worshipper who commissioned the picture, 112cm x 55cm.

Provenance: an English private collection, London and Shetland.

See Nara National Museum, Kasuga Jodo Mandala (Important Cultural Property) for another mandala depicting the Pure Land in the upper section of the composition and a similar worldly view in the lower (Kasuga Shrine). This Kamakura period painting presents stylistic similarities with lot 288A, in particular the portraits of the divine figures and the gilt geometrical patterns throughout. This type of mandala reproduces the composition of an original scroll painting in Taimadera, Nara, dating from circa 763. The painting is based on the description of the Western Paradise given in the Contemplation Sutra. This iconography was disseminated throughout Japan during the Kamakura period (1185-1333). Taima mandalas were used as a teaching aid by the Jodo sect of Buddhism rather than for meditation.