JAPAN, MUROMACHI-EDO PERIOD, 15TH-17TH CENTURY

The sculpture represents Amitabha, known in Japanese as Amida Nyorai, Buddha of Infinite Light. The Pure Land (Jodo) tradition in Japan emphasizes the salvific powers of Amida; incantation of the Buddha’s name can invite divine intercession and devotion in life can ensure rebirth in Amida’s Western Paradise. By the early eleventh century, it was increasingly believed that only the compassion of Amida could override the cycle of rise, decline and fall––the concept of mappo, meaning the end of the Law that would devolve into ten millennia of moral degradation and strife. By Japanese calculation, this would coincide with the year 1052. Devotees among the upper classes commissioned sculptures and paintings showing the arrival of Amida and attendants to welcome the spirits of the dying. Given its scale, it is likely that the figure here graced a private altar.

The figure exudes an elegant serenity characteristic of the sculptural treatments of the late 15th-17th century. Amida’s divinity is emphasized by gentle idealization. The figure is slender and delicate with robes carved in rhythmic folds. The hands are held in the vitarkamudra, the thumb and index fingers forming circles symbolic of perfection in the gesture of appeasement and teaching of the Buddha’s Law.