Artworks

Kongōku Bosatsu, from the Five Power Bodhisattvas

Artwork · Anonymous · second half of the 10th century · kakemono · Yūshi Hachiman-kō

One of three surviving paintings of a set of five Godairiki Bosatsu — wrathful deities worshipped in the ceremony of the Benevolent Kings, held for the protection of the nation after the Ninnō sutra. Kongōku, the Adamantine Howl, sits against an aureole of red flames on a black ground, drawn in black, moderately calligraphic lines; the drapery is flat, the figure full of volume and vitality. The set is dated on its style; kept on Mount Kōya. 1 Mason 2005, pp. 139–141, fig. 170. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.