Shaka Nyorai (Shakyamuni Buddha) with the Bodhisattvas Monju Bosatsu (Mañjusrî) and Fugen Bosatsu (Samantabhadra); Shakyamuni Triad (Shaka sanzon zō)

This severely darkened painting shows a bearded Buddha Shakyamuni (Jp. Shaka Nyorai) wearing a red robe adorned with golden diamond-shaped lozenges and seated on a lotus throne surrounded by magical clouds. Flanking him are the attendant Bodhisattvas Manjushri (Jp. Monju Bosatsu) and Samantabhadra (Jp. Fugen Bosatsu), who are shown as charming, childlike figures astride their respective animal vehicles. On the viewer’s right sits Manjushri the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, cross-legged on a lotiform saddle, with one leg extended down to a smaller lotus bud. He wears an unusual crown culminating in a wish-granting jewel and holds an attenuated scepter in both hands as he perches languorously atop his furry, crouching lion, which regards the viewer mischievously. Samantabhadra, the Bodhisattva of Benevolence, sits in a similar position of royal ease, reading a sutra atop his jolly white elephant. The delicate features and soft colors of the bodhisattvas lend a slightly humorous and endearing quality to what could otherwise have been a rather stiff iconographic rendering.