Jakabffy Imre szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 13. (Budapest, 1971)
HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM - MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Horváth, Tibor: Notes to the Iconography of the White-robed Kannon
not have been créa l od by one band; one or Iwo ihem might prove ihe tradition about Shokei, like for example, the third picture (here, in the vol. XI of the Kokuho Bijusushu Taisci, no. 79). but, on the other hand, the second picture !no. 78) looks like a painting from the Yuan period. A difference in the painting technique can be found among most of the pictures. Obviously, as in the ease of the .\l u-chi's White-robed Kannon. other pictures could also have influenced the ink painters of the Muromachi period . In my study of the 16 pictures in the sel I made the following observations: on several pictures I saw quite a large, square seal that had been pressed into red (purplish-red) paint with a wider frame and positive characters. The seal can generally be found in the central part of the painting, beside Kannon or on the rock, usually ill the darker toned spots which explains why it is not easy to Find. According to Alsiishi Wakisaka the same seal can be found on all the paintings, but this has not yet been deciphered. The size of the pictures (and this applies not only to the 16 pictures that have been seen, but lo all of them) is L29.5 by 51.3 cms. To this must be added the mounted frame which is also identical on every picture. Originally, however, not all the pictures, but only 26 were of this size, for in the case of the remaining six the following observations have been made: among the pictures that I examined I found one — Kannon Standing on the Back ol a Turtle — that has had a Ö—6 am. strip added on lo the lop and boltom. Besides this, the picl lire must have been wider originally because in its present condition the lips of the lingers on the right band are missing (and only a small part of the rock below the hand is visible), and part of dish, held in the left hand, has been cut off. A similar ease of adding pieces on can be seen at the bottom of another picture, which depicts Kannon standing with Buddha silting in his diadem, both hands are raised, the right one is holding a willow tree branch and the left a narrow-bottomed and long, narrow necked vase. (This picture is actually badly damaged, for there is a wide strip missing from the right hand down almost to the foot, which has been patched but not painted.) In addition to this liiere are five pictures that have had wide strips added on at the top. Three of these are from those pictures that are in the worst condition, and in an effort to preserve them even research students are not allowed to see them. In connection with these pictures, it is likely, though not absolutely certain, thai the additional pieces were joined on when the unification of the mountings in llns set was carried out. As far as one can lell from the photographs, these badly damaged pictures are the oldest ones in the sel and ihe dissimilarities in the painting technique appear to be so marked that they can be considered as the work of different artists. Takimi-Kannon, a picture which has been painted in more or less the same style as the majority in the set, has also had a piece joined on at the top. Among the L6 pictures that the author saw there were two in which Kannon had definite masculine features. One of ihem. serial number 26 (a number given by the museum, or more probably by the temple al an earlier dale). Iwato-Kannon (fig. 5), markedly shows the third eye on the forehead: the second one. serial number 5, Renge-Kannon depicts Kannon with a thin moustache and small goatee. 'Ihere are no more depictions of Kannon with similar masculine fen In res among the other pictures that the author only saw the photographs of). With ihe exception of ihe picture which has already been mentioned, namely Kannon standing on a Turtle, with the additions in length and the strips cut off the width, the oilier pictures appear, al first sight to have been painted by one person. It is true thai the method of painting Kannon — the shape of his face and the folds of his robe — varies quite
