skåp, skulptur, sculpture, cabinet

Altar cabinet, black lacquered outside, inside gilded and provided with a large amount of minature figures on the inside of the hatches. Some of them play different musical instruments. In the center inside the cabinet sits a man in a monk’s cladding, which according to the catalog is to be Genku, the founder of the jodo sect in Japan. Genku is one of Shinran’s two names. It was Shinran and Honen who were the most important in the founding of the Jodo sect in the 1200s in Japan. Behind him sits a loose plate with inscription, where it says “namu amida butsu” five times. This “mantra” (nembutsu) should be repeated to get it well in this and the next life according to jodo faith, preferably as many times as possible. At the top of this plate is a small glass window with a pearl (?) inside.