Early 20th Century Japanese Kannon Scroll With Heart Sutra

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Japanese Kannon scroll with Heart Sutra calligraphy, freely drawn with colored inks on paper, signed, with four red seal marks. … Read more Japanese Kannon scroll with Heart Sutra calligraphy, freely drawn with colored inks on paper, signed, with four red seal marks. Mounted on a violet and light gold, paper brocade nakamawashi in a flower and vine pattern, with a narrow carmine red border in a floral pattern. The paper ten and ji are in a blue and gold scratch pattern; the fixed futai on the ten match the nakamawashi pattern. At the top of the scroll, the makio and kakio are braided black and white silk flat cord; mahogany jikusaki at the bottom of the scroll. The outside scroll cover is in blue paper. Image size is 13 1/2" wide x 52 5/8" high. The natural wood jikumono-bako is included. Circa late 19th century, no later than early 20th.

The upper half of the image is the Mahayana Buddhist Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya, or "Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra" written in a precise, kaisho style calligraphy, with two red seal marks. The lower half of the image depicts Kannon, with finely drawn, delicate features, sitting on a throne of shoreline boulders amid seaweeds and beach grasses, clothed in long flowing robes, necklaces and adorned with the Wisdom Eye and the Crown of Amitabha. She holds the Willow Branch in her right hand; the vessel of the Water of Life is placed on the sands below her throne. The mandorla behind Kannon is a large, freely drawn, Zen Enso.

Jikumono baku: 21 7/8" wide x 2 15/16" high x 3 1/4" deep. See less