National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

　This painting represents the scene of passing of the historical Buddha Shakamuni (Skt. Śākyamuni) from this world into Nirvāṇa at the place between two Sal trees (Sarasoju) by the Ajitavatī River (Batsudaiga). It is one of the important scenes in Buddha’s biography. Various works representing Nirvāṇa (nehan) were created from early on and major works include the cray figurine of arranged around the four sides of the lowest level of the five-story pagoda at Horyuji Temple. In addition, Parinirvana Day (nehan-e) using a painting of Nirvāṇa as a main image of a deity became popular in the early Heian period. The paintings of Nirvāṇa were actively drawn through the ages and they were all influenced by the paintings from China while developing unique features of each era.
　This painting has the most unique style among all the paintings of Nirvāṇa and was brought back to Japan after being drawn in Ningbo (present-day Zhejiang Province of China), a trading city, in the Southern Sung period in China. Two Sal trees are drawn as if they are Jeweled woods (hoju) and the disciples surrounding Shakamuni do not seem to look very sad. The scene of the two Chinese savages, Hu people, dancing on both sides of an incense burner as if they are praising Nirvāṇa is also exceptional. It is presumed that the style with these features was established due to the mature belief environment of Ningbo.
　According to the signature by the small block style of Chinese character writing on the middle part of the observer’s right, this painting was drawn by Lu Xinzhong, who was a professional painter (Buddhist painter) in the period between 1195 and 1276 when Ningbo was still called Keigen-fu (慶元府). This painting is a Buddhist painting with extremely strong expressions created in combination with deep colors, fine lines, delicately applied colorful patterns and shows evidence of the transformation from preceding Buddhist paintings, where natural colors seemed to be heavily used. Together with “The Ten Kings of Hell” held by this museum, this is one of the highest quality paintings among the works with Lu Xinzhong’s signature.
　On the upper part of the mounting, there is an ink inscription that reads “天王御宝物 (treasures of the Emperor).” This painting was handed down to Hoju-in, the temple attached to the shrine (bettoji), Tsuhima Shrine, in Aichi Prefecture.