MEIJI PERIOD (LATE 19TH CENTURY), ATTRIBUTED TO MORIKAWA TOEN (1820-1894)

According to legend, the god of Kasuga Shrine in Nara arrived in the eighth century riding on the back of a deer. Deer were subsequently venerated as messengers of the gods or kami at the shrine and still roam freely around the city's temples and shrines. Deer are even the subject of a popular type of devotional painting. There are at least forty extant paintings of a white or chestnut-colored sacred deer, standing on a cloud and carrying a sacred tree mounted on its decorated saddle. The tree supports a large golden disc, or mirror, with images of the five main Kasuga deities in their Buddhist forms. A painting of Sacred Deer of Kasuga Shrine is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, (fig. 1).
Born in Nara Prefecture, Toen first apprenticed to the painter, Naito Kien who was well-known for his deer painting and later to Okano Hohaku to learn wood carving. He was appointed as Kasuga usoku Nara ningyoshi (Sculptor to the Kasuga Shrine) in 1856. Toen was known for his sculptures of deer and produced sculptures of Sacred Deer for the Kasuga Shrine. He participated domestic and international expositions, including the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.