JAPAN, MID EDO PERIOD, DATED 1727 Ink and colors on silk, with later silks mounts; verso and storage box with commemorative inscriptions. Image: 72 x 116 cm (28 3/8 x 45 5/8 in.); With Silks: 90 x 178 cm (35 3/8 x 70 1/8 in.)Footnotes日本 江戶中期 1727年 佛陀涅槃圖立軸 Surrounded by a host of mourning gods, mortals, animals, and mythic beings, Buddha releases his final breath and blissfully transcends the cycle of death, rebirth, and suffering. The commemoration of Buddha's parinirvana is one of the most spiritually profound events in the Japanese Buddhist calendar, occurring each year on the 15th day of the second lunar month. Painted depictions such as this are central to the annual rite and are known from at least the Nara period (710-914). A 15th-century example in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (44.35.1) displays a similar composition. Similar paintings from the Edo period were sold at Sotheby's, New York, 16 September 2009, lot 128, and Christie's, 16 September 2003, lot 176. According to this painting's inscriptions, it was completed in 1727 and donated by a Kawai Hachiroemon in memory of his mother and remounted in 1883 by a descendant. Inscribed on the wood storage box is a third date, stating that the work was again remounted in the 14th year of the Taisho era (1925). Provenance: Kawai Hachiroemon, 1727 Thence by descent until at least 1833 Private Kyoto Collection