Amida Buddha

This is a devotional painting once used by a lay practitioner of Pure Land (Jōdo) Buddhism. Its central image features the seated Amida Buddha flanked by two companion Bodhisattvas (holy mortals who forgo final enlightenment and remain on earth to aid mankind). Such images of different Buddhas, each presiding over his respective paradise, visualized central tenets of the Pure Land faith to foster greater comprehension among the sect’s followers.
The free-floating canopies over the holy trinity, jeweled floor, lotus pool, and fountain are elements common to scenes of this Buddha in his resplendent Western Paradise. The blue sky and swirling golden rays are borrowed, however, from visionary depictions of the Amida Buddha descending to earth to receive the soul of the recently deceased into heaven.
In addition, features of earlier Buddhist narrative handscrolls depicting scenes of the blessed received into heaven and the devilish tortures of hell are reflected in the trinity’s halos; this unusual feature seems to be an innovation by the unidentified 18th–century painter of this work.