AN IMPRESSIVE PAIR OF LARGE SCROLL PAINTINGS DEPICTING... Lot n° 38

AN IMPRESSIVE PAIR OF LARGE SCROLL PAINTINGS DEPICTING NIO GUARDIANS Japan, c. 1700, early Edo period (1615-1868) Each boldly and expressively painted with ink and watercolors on silk, mounted as a hanging scroll with a silk brocade frame. Each depicting one of the two Nio guardians, Agyo with open mouth and Ungyo with closed mouth, respectively, well detailed with muscular bodies, flowing robes, and billowing garlands, and adorned with a necklace, bracelets, and armlets, one holding a Buddhist tuning fork and the other a thunderbolt scepter. Their faces show fierce, almost grotesque expressions marked by large bulging eyes and furrowed brows. SIZE 127.5 x 75.6 cm (image, each) and 192 x 91.5 cm (total, each) Condition: Good condition with some wear, soiling, creasing, few minuscule losses, the mounting with some wear and small tears. Provenance: Dutch collection. With an old black-lacquered wood storage box. Nio or Kongorikishi are two wrathful and muscular guardians of the Buddha, found at the entrance of many Buddhist temples in East Asian Buddhism in the form of frightening wrestler-like statues. They are dharmapala manifestations of the bodhisattva Vajrapani, the oldest and most powerful of the Mahayana Buddhist pantheon. According to Japanese tradition, they traveled with Gautama Buddha to protect him. Within the generally pacifist tradition of Buddhism, stories of dharmapalas justified the use of physical force to protect cherished values and beliefs against evil. Nio are also seen as a manifestation of Mahasthamaprapta, the bodhisattva of power that flanks Amitabha in Pure Land Buddhism and as Vajrasattva in Tibetan Buddhism. They are usually a pair of figures that stand under a separate temple entrance gate commonly called Niomon in Japan. The right statue is called Misshaku Kongo (or Agyo) and has his mouth open, and the left statue is called Naraen Kongo (or Ungyo) and has his mouth closed. Similar to Alpha and Omega in Christianity, they signify ‘everything’.