
The bodhisattva Monju (Sanskrit: Mañjuśri) is depicted here reading a sutra on the back of his vehicle, a blue lion. This painting once served as the right-hand scroll of a triad of Buddhist deities centered on the historical Buddha, Shaka (S: Shakyamuni). Monju and his blue lion would have been balanced on the far left by the bodhisattva Fugen (S: Samantabhadra), who rides a white elephant.