painting;
hanging scroll
- Museum number
- 1881,1210,0.25.JA
- Description
-
Painting, hanging scroll. The thirteen Buddhist deities. Ink and colour on silk.
- Production date
- 17thC (?)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 178.50 centimetres (mount)
-
Height: 98.50 centimetres
-
Width: 52.80 centimetres (mount)
-
Width: 39.80 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- The Thirteen Buddhist Deities guide a soul through the stages of judgement in the afterlife. Each corresponds to one of the thirteen memorial anniversaries, from the first week to the thirty-third year after death. Ten are considered the original forms (honji) of the ten kings of Hell, with the addition of three deities. They are a relatively late development in Japanese Buddhism, first appearing perhaps during the 1500s-1600s. In a separate layering of Buddhism and cosmic time, eight of the deities were paired with the twelve animals of the zodiac.
The thirteen deities are as follows:
Kokūzō
Amida Ashuku Dainichi
Seishi Kannon Yakushi
Fugen Jizō Miroku
Monju Shaka Fudō
'Probably by Tosa Mitsuhiro (15th century).'
(Unattributed annotation in the specially interleaved Japanese Study Room copy of Anderson 1886, where Fugen and Miroku are reversed.)
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1881
- Acquisition notes
- The collection of over 2,000 Japanese and Chinese paintings assembled by Prof. William Anderson during his residency in Japan, 1873-1880, was acquired by the Museum in 1881. The items were not listed in the register, but rather were published separately as the 'Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of a Collection of Japanese and Chinese Paintings in the British Museum' (Longmans & Co, 1886).
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1881,1210,0.25.JA
- Additional IDs
-
Asia painting number: Jap.Ptg.40 (Japanese Painting Number)
