Artworks

The Death of Shaka (Ōtoku nehan zu)

Artwork · Anonymous · 28 May 1086 · kakemono · Kongōbu-ji Temple

The Buddha lies on a wooden platform in a grove, surrounded by the eight classes of beings, each with their name written beside them. The bodhisattvas near his head — Miroku, Jizō, Kannon, Monju and Fugen — stay calm, knowing what he has achieved; his disciples show their sorrow at losing their teacher, and the lion writhes on its back in grief. Upper right, his mother, Queen Maya, descends from heaven. A meticulously detailed document of Buddhist painting as it stood in the late eleventh century. 1 Mason 2005, pp. 147–148, fig. 179. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.