Vintage Japanese Kongo Rikishi Mask Niomon Hannya Demon Oni Noh Kabuki Antique.


Stunning Kongo Rikishi (Nio) Mask. Made of lacquer and plaster. Lovely condition, with marks and blemishes. Please refer to photos.


Provenance on back reads: ************


H 23cm

W cm


842g



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Buddhist Deity- Kongorikishi is two enraged, muscular guardians of the Buddha standing at the entrance of many temples which houses Buddha statues. These Buddhist deities are seen only in the Buddhist temple that follows East Asian Buddhism. It is believed that the Bodhisattvas, Kongorikishi is Dharmapala manifestations of the Bodhisattva Vajrapani, the oldest and most powerful Mahayana Buddhist deity. Apart from the manifestation of the Bodhisattva Vajrapani, the Kongorikishi are also seen as the manifestation of Mahasthamaprapta, the Bodhisattva of power that represents Amitabha Buddha in Pure Land Buddhism and as Vajrasattva in Tibetan Buddhism.

According to Japanese tradition, and as mentioned in Pali Canon and Ambattha Sutta, the Bodhisattva Kongorikishis traveled with Gautama Buddha to protect him and remained his guardian. The other names for this Bodhisattva are Niomon in Japan, Henghaer Jiang in China, Genumgangmun in Korea.

They are usually portrayed as a pair of figures that stand guarding temple entrance gates usually called Shānmén (山門) in China, Niōmon (仁王門) in Japan and Geumgangmun (金剛門) in Korea. The right statue is traditionally called Guhyapāda and has his mouth open, representing the vocalization of the first grapheme of Sanskrit Devanāgarī (अ) which is pronounced "a".[2] The left statue is traditionally called Nārāyaṇa and has his mouth closed, representing the vocalization of the last grapheme of Devanāgarī (ह [ɦ]) which is pronounced "ɦūṃ" (हूँ). These two characters together (a-hūṃ/a-un) symbolize the birth and death of all things. (Men are supposedly born speaking the "a" sound with mouths open and die speaking an "ɦūṃ" and mouths closed.) Similar to Jaya-Vijaya, they signify "everything" or "all creation". The contraction of both is Aum (ॐ).