A Japanese man reading on an Oxen

Last week for Kamie’s oddball challenge I posted this picture:

Kamie wondered what the back story was, so here is a very brief synopsis.  It is a bronze sculpture and it is of a man dressed in a traditional Japanese travelling costume, he is sitting on the back of an ox, and reads a book while he travels.

It depicts either the statesman and scholar Sugawara no Michizane (845-903) or the itinerant Buddhist priest and poet Botanka Shōhaku (1443-1527).  It is suggested that Takamura Kōun (1852-1934) is the sculptor.  The sculpture was donated to Dyffryn gardens by Grenville Morgan in 1951.

References:

https://nttreasurehunt.wordpress.com/2015/08/27/a-japanese-sculpture-at-dyffryn/

http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/1682811

Photos:

And here are a few other photos I have taken of this sculpture.

Ken