The Amida Trinity from the Zenkōji Monastery

The print on paper called Zenkōji Amida sanzon nehanzu (Amida Trinity from the Zenkōji Monastery and the Buddha’s Parinirvana nehanzu) is an example of a religious-themed woodblock print (bukkyō hanga) from the collections of the National Gallery in Prague, as it represents two of the most frequent iconographical types in Japanese Buddhism: the Buddha Amida Trinity from the Zenkōji monastery and the Shakyamuni Buddha recumbent in the Parinirvana position denoting spiritual death (Shaka no nehanzu). The imprint with the image of the Amida Trinity, which is also presented in the left stamp (imbutsu), is reminiscent of the eponymous devotional statuary in the Zenkōji monastery in Shinshū Province, one of the pilgrimage sites for Amida cult adherents. The hand-coloured woodblock print in the National Gallery in Prague, which is decorated in liquid gold, dates from the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. Originally owned by the art historian Professor Václav Vilém Štech (1885–1974), it was purchased by the National Gallery in Prague in 1973.