Currently not on view
Welcoming descent of Amida (Amida raigō 阿弥陀来迎図),
14th century
Anonymous
Japanese
Kamakura period, 1185–1333
y1952-59
Standing on a cloud, the Amida Buddha, accompanied by two bodhisattvas, descends from the Pure Land to accept the soul of a dying believer. Bodhisattvas are beings who are able to attain nirvana but choose instead to stay in this world in order to help others. Gold light rays emanate from Amida to signal his coming. In rituals, such a raigō 来迎 (welcoming-approach) painting is brought into the house of a dying person. The bodhisattva on the left is Seishi, who holds his hands in prayer; on the right is Kannon, who carries a lotus throne on which the believer will be reborn in the Pure Land paradise.
More About This Object
Information
Title
Welcoming descent of Amida (Amida raigō 阿弥陀来迎図)
Dates
14th century
Maker
Medium
Hanging scroll (cut and framed); ink, color, gold, and silver on silk
Dimensions
124.5 x 66 cm. (49 x 26 in.)
frame: 225 × 92.7 × 4.8 cm (88 9/16 × 36 1/2 × 1 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Carl Otto von Kienbusch Jr., Memorial Collection
Object Number
y1952-59
Place Made
Asia, Japan
Culture
Period
Materials
Subject
- "Recent acquisitions," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 12, no. 1 (1953): p. 38-39., p. 39
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The Carl Otto von Kienbusch, Jr. Memorial Collection (Princeton: Princeton University Art Museum, 1956)
, no. 40[? -obscured on card] - Allen Rosenbaum and Francis F. Jones, Selections from The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1986), p. 248 (illus.)
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 263 (illus.)
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 315
