kinkan shutsugen-zu　金棺出現図

KEY WORD :　art history / iconography

Lit. painting of Sakyamuni emerging from the golden coffin. A genre of painting depicting one of the scenes from the life of the historical Buddha *Shaka 釈迦, also Shaka kinkan shutsugen-zu 釈迦金棺出現図. According to the MAKAMAYAGYOU 摩訶摩耶経 (Ch: Mohemoyejing: Mahamaya Scripture), upon hearing of Shaka's death, his mother Mahamaya (Jp: Makamaya or Maya bunin 摩耶夫人; Lady Maya) descended from the Heaven of the Thirty-three Gods *Sanjuusanten 三十三天 to where he lay in a coffin between two sal trees sara souju 沙羅双樹 near Kusinagara (Jp: Kushinajou 拘尸那城). Shaka's mother was overcome with grief at the mournful scene that met her. Seeing this, Shaka thereupon opened the lid of his coffin, raised himself, uttered a verse of consolation, and then disappeared once again within the coffin, closing the lid as he did so. Depictions of this scene have been found in a number of murals at Dunhuang (Jp: Tonkou 敦煌) in China, and Kizil in Central Asia, and it has been suggested that, as a result of the influence of Christianity, they were meant to represent the resurrection of Shaka. In Japan, the scene is to be found included in pictorial representations of Shaka's death *nehan-zu 涅槃図, but the only example of a painting devoted solely to this episode is that at Kyoto National Museum (formerly at Chouhouji 長法寺, Kyoto, late 11c), regarded as one of the finest examples of Buddhist painting from the Heian period. It depicts Shaka in the center and his mother and astounded bodhisattvas *bosatsu 菩薩, gods and monks in the foreground and on both sides. A distinctive feature of this painting is the use of gold leaf on and around the figure of Shaka in order to produce the effect of a resplendent halo shining forth from his person .

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