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

　　These three paintings represent Shakamuni (Skt. Śākyamuni) at the center who is facing the front and sitting on the jeweled pedestal (hodan) under which a lion (shishi) is located and Monju (Skt. Mañjuśrī) sitting on the shishi on the observer’s right and Fugen (Skt. Samantabhadra) riding on a white elephant with six tusks on the observer’s left. They are either on a rising cloud or a flying cloud floating in empty space. Shakamuni wears a red vesture while forming the mudra, Seppo’in, and has a halo behind his head and back. Monju in yellow is wearing a rectangular robe (kasaya) and holding a Buddhist priest’s scepter (nyoi) in both hands. Fugen in white is wearing a long thin strip (johaku), a wrap around skirt (kun) and a thin shawl-like cloth (tenne) and is holding a white lotus.
　　They are deeply influenced by Chinese paintings in the Sung and Yuan periods and characteristic features such as Shakamuni’s crown (nikkei), long face, arched eyebrows, the bridge of the nose drawn with two lines on each side and long nails are derived from Chinese painting. In addition, the decorative jeweled crowns (hokan) worn by the bodhisattvas on both sides, the complicated style of the saddles and the style of how Monju wears the kasaya were copied from the Chinese paintings in the Sung and Yuan periods. Such influences can also be seen from the patterns with gold paint (kindei) instead of cut gold leaf (kirikane) applied on each dressed deity. The color technique ushing thick gold paint (kindei moriage zaishiki), where the clasp is represented by applying kindei repeatedly on a white powder (gofun) based foundation to increase the thickness, was often used in the late Kamakura period (1185–1333).