Enku Sold at Auction Prices

A WOOD FIGURE OF A BODHISATTVA By Enku (1632-1695) Carved in the natabori style from a single block of paulownia wood

A WOOD FIGURE OF A BODHISATTVA By Enku (1632-1695) Carved in the natabori style from a single block of paulownia wood, the deity’s hands held to the front and drapery fanning out to either side in finlike projections, with a later natural wood base With an unmarked wood storage box 17 7/8in (45.5cm) height of figure; 20 1/4in (51.5cm) height overall Born in present-day Gifu Prefecture to a farming family, Enku studied esoteric Buddhism and attained priestly status before embarking on a lifetime of pilgrimage, visiting temples and sacred sites throughout Japan and following the austere code of a shugenja (ascetic mountain-dwelling monk). The Kinsei kijinden, a biographical anthology compiled in 1788, attributes to Enku all sorts of miraculous deeds, including one occasion on which he carved 1,000 Buddha images of Buddhas to save a village from being taken over by a local pond god, achieving his goal by throwing all the figures into the water (see Grisha F. Dotzenko, Enku: Master Carver, Tokyo, Kodansha International, 1976, pp. 11- 12). Legend has it that Enku produced some 120,000 sculptures; whatever the true total it is certain that many of his carvings were intended as amulets to ward off evil or cure diseases. For this reason they often represent popular compassionate deities such as the bodhisattva Kannon, as with the present lot. They are generally very simple, done in few strokes with the ax cuts left visible and highlighting the natural characteristics of the wood. For comparable published figures of bodhisattavas by Enku, see Goto Hideo, Edo no kyubisuto Enku (Enku: Edo Cubist), Tokyo, Shogakukan, 1980, pp. 47-48, a figure in the Amidadera, Seki City, Gifu Prefecture; Dotzenko, Enku: Master Carver (see above), cat. no. 16, a figure of Sho Kannon; Nagai Shinfichi and Maruyama Naokazu, Enku to Mokujiki (Enku and Mokujiki), Tokyo, Kodansha, 1978, pls. 14, 24, figures of Sho Kannon in the Kannonji, Aichi Prefecture.