EDO PERIOD, 19TH CENTURY

The figure may represent Prince Shotoku Taishi (574-622), revered as Japan’s patron of Buddhism during the early years, and later venerated as a reincarnation of the Buddha Shakyamuni or the Bodhisattva Kannon, but the iconography here is unusual. The sixteen-year-old Shotoku Taishi, for example, holds a censer, taking part in rites for the recovery of his father, but has his hair hanging down and does not wear a cap. On the other hand, when Shotoku Taishi is shown as a regent at age thirty-two, issuing a proclamation regarding court ranks, he is usually seated, wearing coat and hat and holding a scepter. For portraits of Shotoku Taishi, see Hisashi Mori, Japanese Portrait Sculpture, translated and adapted by W. Chie Ishibashi (Tokyo, New York and San Francisco: Kodansha International and Shibundo, 1977), pp. 68–74.