Anonymous


Gakko Bosatsu, Muromachi period (1333-1573), 15th/16th centuryHanging scroll, ink, color, and gold on silk in silk mounts, depicting Gakko Bosatsu, the Bodhisattva of Moon-Radiance, standing on a lotus dais in flowing scarves and holding a gatsurin (lunar disc) in his left hand, inside which stands a white hare, a flaming mandorla frames the deity's headWith a double wood storage box 34 3/4 x 15 1/2in (88.3 x 39.4cm)
|The best-known and earliest Japanese image of Gakko Bosatsu is an eight-century painted clay sculpture in the Sangatsudo, a structure within the precincts of the great Todaiji Temple in Nara, Japan's ancient capital. Gakko Bosatsu is regularly paired with Nikko Bosatsu, the Bodhisattva of Solar Radiance, and the two often appear as attendants to Yakushi Nyorai, the Medicine-Buddha of future times; the present lot likely once formed part of a triad made up of the three deities. Preserving the serenity of the early sculptural version and the elegance of later painted icons of Gakko, this hanging scroll shows the bodhisattva holding in his left hand a moon disk bearing an image of a hare pounding rice in a mortar, reflecting an association with its roots in ancient Chinese mythology.