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An ivory Netsuke of Songoku
Japan, Meiji period (1868-1912)
A finely carved standing figure of a monkey, dressed in Chinese armour of the Tang Dynasty, his left hand holding a Kongo, a Buddhist ritual implement symbolizing a thunderbolt, carrying a basket with fruit on his back. Signed to the base
Height 7.4 cm.
Catalogue Note:
The monkey Songoku (in Chinese, Sun Wukong, translated by the British Sinologue Arthur Waley as “aware of vacuity”), is one of the heroes of the novel Saiyuki (in Chinese,Xiyouji, “The Journey to the West”). Starting out as a troublesome magician with the power to transform himself into seventy-two different shapes, he quickly submits to the will of the Buddha and becomes the faithful companion of the Chinese pilgrim Genso Sanzo (in Chinese, Xuanzang). Songoku accompanies the pilgrim on an epic journey to India, during which they endure eighty-one adventures and eventually succeed in bringing back the 5,048 volumes of Buddhist scriptural canon.