The largest portable zushi altarpiece from the National Gallery in Prague collections is an example of the unprecedented boom in carving and metal chasing art at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. The altarpiece of hard black-lacquered wood has a smooth surface whose sole decoration are fittings on the door, base and bent roof. When the door opens, we are dazed by lavish golden carvings surrounding the central triad of the large seated bodhisattva and his two standing companions. Bare-headed Jizō, dressed in a monk’s robe at left is easily identified. The inner gold-covered side of the door bears the figures of two out of the four Heavenly Kings painted in colours, the Guardian of the North Bishamonten with a halberd in his right hand, and the Guardian of the East Jikokuten wearing a skirt of tiger’s skin. Guardian dragons spiral around the pillars of the inner altarpiece.
