Anonymous Japan, Muromachi period, late 14th Century

hanging scroll format, ink and color on silk, with Buddha Sakyamuni lying prone on rectangular dais dressed in gilded patchwork robes, one hand possibly in abhayamudra and his feet splayed open, the face serene with eyes closed below the urna and usnisha, the surrounding forest of bo-trees full of kneeling and wailing mourners comprised of disciples or arhats, earthly kings and ascetics, bodhisattvas and wrathful emanations, mahasiddhas, devas and demons, as well as the various animals of the earth including dragons, lion and elephant, cumulatively representing the beings of the Three Existences, the planes of Heaven, Earth and the Underworld, with his mother, Queen Maya, and her maids floating down to attend upon clouds within the moonlit sky

Kaikodo, Ltd., A Natural Selection, New York, Spring 2001, cat.no.31.

The death of the historical Buddha, Siddharta Gautama, at age eighty, is recounted in the Maha-Parinirvana Sutra, and the event is cited as pari-nirvana, (lit. 'the complete and perfect extinction of the flame') wherein the state of enlightenment achieved by him during his mortal life is fully completed by his departure from the physical place of existence. While Buddha taught that this was a cause of celebration, the present image captures the more mundane and earth-bound reaction of the beings of the Three Existences; their anguish represented at an emotional pitch rarely found overtly in Japanese, much less in East Asian, paintings.

Compare a series of late fourteenth century parinirvana paintings preserved in Japanese temples, illustrated by Nakano Genzo, Nihon no Bijutsu, No.238, Nirvana, Tokyo, 1993, pl.2, in Kongobu-ji, dated to 1086AD; pl.11, in Chofuku-ji, from the late 14th century; pl.45, in Nakanobo-ji, by a late Song dynasty artist (13th century); and in particular, pl.13, in Jogan-ji, from the late 14th century. The series is illustrated again Kaikodo Journal XIX, 'A Natural Selection', New York, Spring 2001, pp.292-294, figs.2-5 and 8, where the development of the main Buddha image is discussed. By the late 14th century, the Buddha figure becomes less gigantic and more proportionate to the surrounding mourners, the feet are splayed open rather than held awkwardly in parallel, and the right hand is held in abhayamudra rather than by the body or supporting the head; compare a painting of Parinirvana from slightly earlier in the Muromachi period, now in the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum, illustrated in Mayuyama Seventy Years, vol.II, Tokyo, 1976, pl.373. These developments cumulatively impart a more didactic sense to the divine image, as if meant to be viewed rotated ninety degrees to the picture plane - if the prone figure was read as if standing vertically, it would be Buddha teaching the viewer not to fear mortality; thereby visually imparting, and reinforcing, the doctrinal lessons of the source sutra.