Yamaguchi Shojosai (1900-1978)
1946
A six-case inro with a design of Kannon seated in a rocky landscape. Clouds billow around her haloed head while water laps at her feet. Her hands rest on one folded knee. The bejewelled goddess of compassion wears sumptuously decorated robes and a scarf falls softly round her shoulders. The reverse is minutely inscribed with a passage from the Hannya Shingyo sutra (Heart Sutra) and dated 昭和丙戌初秋之謹寫 “Showa hinoe-inu shoshu kore kinsha” [hereby inscribed with reverence in early autumn of Showa 21 (1946)] written in gold lacquer against a black ground. and top, base and sides have a pattern of zuiun 瑞雲 (swirling auspicious Buddhist clouds). Risers: nashiji, shoulders and rims: fundame.
After contracting polio in his childhood, the artist used crutches to aid his mobility and adopted the art-name Shojosai 松杖斎(“Pine-crutches-studio”). The subject and sutra carry a message of hope and healing after the end of the Second World War.
