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Lot Essay
This sculpture is thought to date to the 1680s, when Enku was in the Nikko area. The inscription in ink on the back, probably not by Enku, is illegible except for a few words—clues to the approximate date and the provenance: Genroku ninen tsuchinoto-mi rokugatsu nijuyokka (24 June 1689); Myogaku-in.
The current owner’s grandfather, Yoshiara Yasuzo, was a member of the Tochigi prefectural assembly in the small city of Nikko, in the mountains north of Tokyo. Just before or after the war, he was asked by the abbot of a local temple, the Myogaku-in, to buy his temple’s main hall. Before the hall was moved to Yasuzo’s garden, the abbot removed what he considered to be the important Buddhist sculptures, but he left Enku’s Kannon, as Enku’s work was not considered significant at that time. Today, there is no more popular sculptor in Japan.
Yasuzo was at the center of the local cultural elite. He had relationships with many individuals in the world of art and culture, including the poet Takahama Kiyoshi; the painters Kosugi Hoan, Ogawa Usen, Maruyama Banka and Nakamura Fusetsu; and the poet and painter Shimizu Hian, at one time the mayor of Nikko. Others who also visited and stayed at his home were the Kabuki actors Nakamura Kichiemon; Nakamura Shikan; and Matsumoto Koshiro. One visitor in the summer of 1961 was the famous potter Hamada Shoji, a Living National Treasure, who worked in the pottery town of Mashiko, also in Tochigi Prefecture. Hamada was a canny collector of folk art and must have coveted this piece.
Enku was born into a poor family in Gifu Prefecture in the early 17th century and left home as a boy to enter a local temple affiliated with the Tendai sect. In his twenties, he learned the rudiments of carving from itinerant woodworkers and began traveling as an itinerant monk-sculptor, leaving behind thousands of rough-hewn, powerful Buddhist images, many of which he donated to local temples and the people who gave him shelter along the way.
The current owner’s grandfather, Yoshiara Yasuzo, was a member of the Tochigi prefectural assembly in the small city of Nikko, in the mountains north of Tokyo. Just before or after the war, he was asked by the abbot of a local temple, the Myogaku-in, to buy his temple’s main hall. Before the hall was moved to Yasuzo’s garden, the abbot removed what he considered to be the important Buddhist sculptures, but he left Enku’s Kannon, as Enku’s work was not considered significant at that time. Today, there is no more popular sculptor in Japan.
Yasuzo was at the center of the local cultural elite. He had relationships with many individuals in the world of art and culture, including the poet Takahama Kiyoshi; the painters Kosugi Hoan, Ogawa Usen, Maruyama Banka and Nakamura Fusetsu; and the poet and painter Shimizu Hian, at one time the mayor of Nikko. Others who also visited and stayed at his home were the Kabuki actors Nakamura Kichiemon; Nakamura Shikan; and Matsumoto Koshiro. One visitor in the summer of 1961 was the famous potter Hamada Shoji, a Living National Treasure, who worked in the pottery town of Mashiko, also in Tochigi Prefecture. Hamada was a canny collector of folk art and must have coveted this piece.
Enku was born into a poor family in Gifu Prefecture in the early 17th century and left home as a boy to enter a local temple affiliated with the Tendai sect. In his twenties, he learned the rudiments of carving from itinerant woodworkers and began traveling as an itinerant monk-sculptor, leaving behind thousands of rough-hewn, powerful Buddhist images, many of which he donated to local temples and the people who gave him shelter along the way.