Naga381 Tenjin Michizane wooden sculpture

Wooden sculpture (yosegi) or pieces of wood fitted together, known as a technique of Buddhist sculpture since the 10th century. This is Tenjin, literally the God of Heaven, a name given posthumously to Sugawara Michizane (845-903), scholar, and diplomat in the Sino-Japanese theater of operations when Japan was still sending emissaries to the Chinese court. But, in 898, when Michizane suggested that an end be put to such embassies due to lack of influence and bad times on the mainland, he was suspected of a plot to overthrow the court, and was exiled to Daizaifu, near modern Fukuoka. He died there in903. He wrote his diary and poems in Chinese. He was rehabilitated after his death and made a Shinto god because it was suspected that his avenging spirit was causing a series of calamities in the Heian capital. His main shrine is the Daizaifu Tenmangu in Fukuoka, and secondarily, the Kitano Tenmangu in the Kitano area of Kyoto. Students go there to pray for success in entrance exams, and there are shrines to Tenjin all over Japan. This wooden sculpture pictures him in his usual stance in a seated position, holding a shaku or a symbol of Imperial authority. Though he was never in the uppermost ranks of the nobility related directly to the Emperor, he achieved this after his death. Edo Period or earlier. C.1750. Traces of gesso, but not paint. Width 23.5 cm., height 18.5 cm.

naga381 Wooden sculpture  $138.00 (shipping & packing available) We accept VISA and MASTERCARD See more at Richard Arts