Country Group:

Item id: 10728

Very rare 16/17thC Japanese Bronze Cross with Buddha. I've owned a number of other iron examples of this over the past 30 years, and seen one other at auction. I've also owned 2 bronze examples, which are less common. I've been told they were used by early Japanese Christians, as they were persecuted by the Shoguns, and wanted to show that they still respected the Buddha and "Honored their Elders" -the decorative scroll work that you see in the very center of the cross on the lower half, probably was also on the upper half when the piece was first made, but it is now long gone. I only know this because I have seen several other examples of this type of cross and the others all have the decorative scrollwork on the top and bottom halves. If you go into the advance search feature on my website and look under both sold and for sale and put in “cross” as a search word, and Japan as the country, you will see the ones I sold in the past, and one other that I currently have available. This one has a particularly nice patina, and there is an echo of a face that still shines through, which is rare as these are usually quite worn. The bronze examples tend to wear better.( 10"H x 8"W x .75"D ) - 1lbs .