Dobrovits Aladár szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 3-4. (Budapest, 1959)
HOPP FERENC KELETÁZSIAI MŰVÉSZETI MÚZEUM - Tibor Horváth: The new acquisitions of the Francis Hopp's Museum
Wên-shu (Manjusrï), h. 34 cm, also from the Ming period, donated by Imre Schwaiger (E. Baktay, Recent acquisitions of the Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts in Budapest. Acta Orient. Hung. 1/1, 1951, pi. 9) which has some similarity of casting and reparations with stub nails with this Pu-tai statue. We may add that inside of both of them, we found remains of the original mould of clay burned to black in the corners. Therefore we believe that this kind of — in a way — poor casting of the precious ,, gold-bronze" material was characteristic to a certain period of the Mingdynasty. This bronze is much like the so called ,,Hsuan-te-bronze", but even more gold-like and where it is polished Fig. 7. off, as on the base where it is more worn, has a very shiny surface. Such larger size Pu-tai are put on the main shrine or dais in the Hall of Ch'an temples. They were also regarded as a manifestation of Maitreya, the future Buddha. 4. Japan. Bodhisattva, wooden statue with cut-gold (kirikane) patterns on the robe. (Fig. 8—12). H. 196 cm (total), 48,7 cm (the statue). Kamakura period (1185—1392). lnv. no. 57.388.1. 1—3. Purchased from a private collector whose husband bought it in New York around 1905. Bodhisattva in a seated position, on a ,,nana-e rengeza", seven-fold lotus throne, with a boat-shaped halo. The statue was built up of parts (yosegi, or kiyosezukuri) in the following way : a rectangular log hollowed out to have a boxlike appearance constitute the breast and the back. To this was put in the head, also made of two parts. The arms and the forepart of the legs were added then to the central piece. The inner surface was left in a state, still showing the marks of chiseling, fig. 12. The hair-knot was carved out from a separate piece of wood and fixed by a peg, thin and very pointed, sticking out of the head. The right hand and the left lower arm are missing. The face is slightly damaged, otherwise the statue is in a good condition. Especially well preserved are the cut-gold (kirikane) decorative patterns on the robe, which show a great deal of variations, as usual. Beside naturalistic elements, like honeysuckle (karakusa), there are some geometric kind, stars (asanoha), EasternAsiatic ,, meander" (reimon), etc. 10 The sixteen petalled chrysanthemums are also repeated and a crest (mon) on the right sleeve might help us in future researches to locate the temple from which this statue originated. The diadem (hokan) and the necklace (ochiku) of gilded copper, richly decorated, are also from the Kamakura period. 10 D. Seckel : Kirikane. Die Schnittgold-Dekoration in der japanischen Kunst, ihre Technik und ihre Geschichte. Oriens Extremus, 1/1954, pp. 71. — 88.
