According to the chapter titled “Entry into the Realm of Reality” in the Flower Garland sutra, the young pilgrim Sudhana follows the instructions of the bodhisattva Manjushri and journeys to find enlightenment by visiting fifty-three teachers. This Goryeo 고려 高麗 illustration of the Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara represents the twenty-eighth scene: the encounter between Sudhana and the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. Many conventional aspects associated with Goryeo 고려 高麗 Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara paintings are depicted: The bodhisattva is seated on a rocky outcrop in a half-lotus position, the kundika bottle holding a willow branch is placed near the deity’s right hand, and Sudhana is gazing upwards at the bodhisattva from the bottom corner of the painting.

The flesh of the bodhisattva in this image has a pinkish tone; its contours and details were first drawn in ink and then covered with red lines. The veil is decorated with floral roundels that were rendered in gold. The hemp-leaf pattern, which is the standard background pattern for the veil, is absent from this painting. The contours and details of the veil were drawn in white lines which trace ink outlines painted in black; gold was added on top. Further, color gradations of the white pigment applied along contours and folds create a sense of volume. The skirt, painted in red, is filled with a tortoise-shell pattern rendered in white, which was then overlaid with lotus medallions. The hem of the skirt was first drawn in ink and then topped with floral scrolls in gold.

Unfortunately, the kundika bottle and bamboo are barely visible in the painting due to significant damage to the silk and the loss of pigments. Damage and loss also obscure another notable element at the bottom, near the center of the painting. The element is a figure, dressed in a green garment, with a red circular ring. He is the thunder god who appears in illustrations of the Lotus Sutra. This figure can be seen in only a few other examples, all currently in Japanese collections: The Tanzan-jinja 談山神社, Seikado Bunko 靜嘉堂文庫, and the Tokyo University of the Arts, the last of which became public only recently.[1]

The painting can be dated to the late fourteenth century based on the mannered depiction of the veil and the slender face of the bodhisattva. Not only a remarkable example of the subject, this painting shows that iconographies drawn from illustrations of the Lotus Sutra consistently influenced paintings of the Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara, including in the late Goryeo 고려 高麗 period (918–1392).

—Chung Woothak, Professor Emeritus, Dongguk University, Seoul

Note:
[1] For images of two of the three paintings, see Kikutake Junichi 菊竹淳一 and Chung Woothak 鄭于澤, eds., Kōrai jidai no butsuga 高麗時代の仏画 [The Buddhist paintings of Koryo Dynasty] (Seoul: Sigongsa, 2000), 162–65, pl. 73 (Tanzan-jinja 談山神社), 174–75, pl. 79 (Seikado Bunko 静嘉堂文庫).