East Asia: Early Japanese Painting
Anonymous, Nachi waterfall or Nachi no Kannon (Kannon of the Nachi waterfall),
late 13th century. Nezu Bijitsukan collection.
From the Nezu Bijitsukan Masterpieces web page on Nachi:
"Hanging scroll, colour on silk. Kamakura period. 159.4 by 58.9 cm.
In the upper portion of this scroll a section of dense forest is combined
with a small area of open sky accented by a rising moon. The lower section
allows a glimpse of a stand of Japanese cedar and the roof of a Thousand-Armed
Kannon shrine. The space between these two extremes is filled by dark,
granite-faced walls cut by the straight fall of a silvery white waterfall.
This suijaku or Buddhist representation work deifying the waterfall is
a pictorialization of the ancient belief of nature worship, and must also
be considered a realistically depicted landscape painting. If the stupa
placed next to the Thousand Armed Kannon shrine at the bottom of the composition
is thought to be the stupa erected in 1281 upon the visit of the Emperor
Kmameyama, then this work can be considered to have been painted almost
immediately after this event."
Buddhologically , the Kumano Mandara is also interesting in that the spirit
(Kami) of Nachi is Kumano Gongen a Buddhist protective deity.
