Lot 21. A dated gilt-bronze figure of Buddha, Northern Wei dynasty, dated 495; 8cm., 3 1/8 in. Estimate 6,000 — 9,000 GBP. Lot sold 18,750 GBP (26,136 EUR). Photo courtesy Sotheby's.

cast seated in dhyanasana with arms folded in dhyanamudra, the robes falling into neat pleats, the face with a meditative expression and the hair piled up into a high chignon, all supported on a stepped plinth raised on four feet, the reverse with an inscription dated nineteenth year of Taihe (corresponding to 495), wood stand and Japanese wood box.

Exhibited: Tokubetsu tenji Rikuchō jidai no Kondōbutsu [Gilt-bronze statues from the Six Dynasties], Kuboso Memorial Museum of Arts, Osaka, 1991, cat. no. 13.

Note: The production of Buddhist images, in particular small portable figures such as the present piece, proliferated during the Taihe reign of the Northern Wei dynasty. A similar figure of Shakyamuni Buddha seated in dhyanasana on a stepped pedestal is illustrated in Saburo Matsubara, Chūgoku bukkyō chōkokushi ron [Historical discussion of Chinese Buddhist sculpture], Tokyo, 1995, vol. 1, pl. 66, no. b; and another complete with the backing mandorla, in the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, is published in Rokucho no bijutsu [Arts of the Six Dynasties], Tokyo, 1976, pl. 279.

Sotheby's. The Soul of Japanese Aesthetics – The Tsuneichi Inoue Collection, London, 13 may 2015