AN 'INSCRIBED' GILT-BRONZE VOTIVE FIGURE OF A SEATED BUDDHA ...

Hammer

£2,600

AN 'INSCRIBED' GILT-BRONZE VOTIVE FIGURE OF A SEATED BUDDHA 
LIU SONG DYNASTY, WITH LATER COMPONENTS
The figure, with smiling countenance, left hand in abhaya mudra, and right in a variant of varada mudra, sits enthroned on a tiered and waisted pedestal, supported below by four flaring legs.
A large and ornate mandorla frames the figure, extending upward from the pedestal. The mandorla frames the Buddha’s head with an inner circle of lotus petals around which wraps a vine meander, and which is surrounded in turn by an outer envelope of flame. Around the outer periphery of the mandorla are five figures of winged apsaras, between each of which are stylised floral roundels
23.5cm high

PROVENANCE: From a Private Japanese Collection.
Ex. Collection of Dr Carroll Brown Malone (1886-1973).

FOOTNOTE: A contemporary votive bronze with similar, if more stylised, treatment of the mandorla (and lacking the outer floral roundels) may be found in the collection of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, and is illustrated in Hai Wai Yi Chen—Chinese Art In Overseas Collections—Buddhist Sculpture;
National Palace Museum, Taipei 1990, figure 58.
The rear of the mandorla bears an inscription of 41 characters. The inscription is carved clearly by a man of letters. The calligraphy is strong, stylish and impressive. Within the inscription, two characters are illegible. The inscription begins with the characters sheng ming, The unique reign name of the last Liu Song Emperor of the (former) Southern Song dynasty who ascended the throne in 477 C.E. The third to fifth characters are er nian sui, second year, allowing a precise dating of the piece to the year 478 C.E. in the Liu Song Dynasty (420 - 479 C.E). The Sheng Ming reign was the last of the Liu Song Dynasty, which fell to the Southern Qi the year following the casting of this bronze figure.
Complete Buddhist bronze figures dated to the Northern and Southern Dynasties period are rare, with virtually all identified with the Northern kingdoms—only a handful of votive bronzes firmly attributable to the Southern Dynasties appear to have survived. The present example is one of a very small group of similar figures, only two others of which are presently known.
One, acquired by the Musée Guimet in 1937, is illustrated in Rarities of the Musée Guimet; Asia
House Galleries, NY 1975 and earlier in Chinese Buddhist Bronzes; Hugo Munsterberg, Tokyo 1967 This illustrated figure is so similar to the present bronze that one might even assume that it originated in the same atelier and piece mould with a separately (lost wax) moulded mandorla produced from the same original tracing design. However, according to Munsterberg, the Guimet figure does not bear an inscription and was attributed by him to the Northern Wei, some 50 years later. This is incorrect. The Guimet example was indeed illustrated in Rarities of the Musee Guimet but the catalogue clearly states that the Musee Guimet example is dated with an identical inscription and was acquired in Japan by Joseph Hackin in 1933. Hackin (1886~1941) was an archaeologist, explorer/collector, formerly connected to the museum as a curatorial director.
Furthermore, another similar example with the same inscription is ‘referred’ to in the Asia House
Galleries catalog as belonging to the Carroll B. Malone* Collection, USA, but this stele does not appear to have been published. The existence of the Malone example, according to the Musee Guimet catalogue, made it possible to accurately translate illegible characters on the Guimet stele. The inscriptions read:“ In this second year of the Cheng Ming era (478.C.E) year of the Wou-wou sign, the tenth day since the beginning of the seventh moon, the faithful Yang Kao respectfully makes this statuette so that his deceased parents, as well as his wife, his children and his brothers, may all meet the Buddhas and rejoin the three jewels.”
Professor Carroll B. Malone (1886 ~ 1973) was professor of history at Colorado College in the 1930s having previously taught for many years in Peking and later in Taiwan. He was deeply interested in East Asian Art. Hackin and Malone were friends and probably acquired the two stele together in Japan.
The current owner acquired the figure in Hong Kong about 2000 from Taiwanese dealers who had purchased the Buddha from Professor Malone in the late 1960s early 70s.

JAPANESE CONNECTION
From an historical aspect, it would not be unrealistic to link the discovery of this dated Liu Song image to a chance 19 th -20 th C ‘archaeological’ find in either the Izumo Kingdom (Shimane Prefecture) or the Kibi Kingdom (Okayama Prefecture) Both historically important during the fifth and sixth centuries C.E.
It has been well documented in both Chinese and Japanese histories (Liang Shu and Kojiki) that
Ghandaran Buddhist missionaries visited Wa (467 C.E) a decade before this image was cast. The
earliest Chinese depiction of Buddha found in Japan to date, is on a bronze mirror of the third century C.E. found in a tumulus (kofun) in present day Nagano Prefecture. It is also interesting to note that Joseph Hackin, who acquired the Guimet example in Japan in 1933, was a renowned authority on Ghandara Buddhism and had worked on Buddhist archaeological sites in Afghanistan. Hackin would have recognized the Ghandaran influences on the example he sourced in Japan for the Musee Guimet.
During the reign of the Wa King Yuryaku (Bu) the Kojiki records that messengers from King Yuryaku
were dispatched to the Liu Song Emperor (Sheng Ming) in both 477 & 478 C.E. requesting military support in protecting Paekche against Koguryo incursions.
King Yuryaku (Bu) was born in Kibi and ruled from Yamato. He maintained close but at times
acrimonious relations with the Kibi chieftains throughout his reign. He died in Kibi.
It is accepted that when the Buddhist faith was first promulgated in Japan its acceptance was first
tested in Izumo and Kibi. The Korean connected Soga ministers nurtured the already sparsely accepted new religion in Kibi following an incident in Yamato in 552 C.E. A small gilded bronze Buddha (probably Chinese) was presented by the ruler of Paekche to the Yamato Emperor Kimmei and enshrined in a temple. It caused offense to the followers of the native Shinto Kami; the Temple was destroyed by fire with the offending gilded Buddha being thrown into the Naniwa canal.
In all likelihood, similar votive images to the dated Liu Song gilded Buddha had been carried to Izumo and Kibi (prior to the above Naniwa historical example) and similarly enshrined and venerated amongst the large Izumo and Kibi communities of Chinese and Korean Buddhist immigrants.

More Information

The base has been broken into two and restored. The buddha head was retouched or broken and repaired at the neck . Some rubbing/losses to the gilding over the years and some corrosion to the base. Otherwise OK.