Japanese Miniature Boxed Zhushi Shrine with Standing Buddha

Two curved doors open, and a figure barely three inches tall turns out to have a full crown of rays behind it.

This miniature boxed zhushi shrine with standing Buddha comes from Japan and dates to the Edo Period (1603 – 1867 CE). It is wood and bronze. Small portable shrines of this kind, called zushi in Japanese, were generally made for private devotion. Inside the cylindrical black case, a gilded figure in long robes stands on a lotus above a stepped pedestal, framed by a spiky halo. The interior is lined in gold, and the inner faces of the doors carry a gold interlocking key-fret pattern. It is 3.25 inches high and 1.5 wide.

Devotion, scaled for the pocket and not diminished by it.