A Portable Christian Shrine (Seigan) Commissioned by the Portuguese Jesuits (oil on copper in case)

The shallow rectangular case with a bentwood architectural top, gilt-copper hinge plates and original L-bar lock engraved with flowers on an irregular ring-matted ground, the sides and back plain and the outsides and insides of the doors decorated in hiramaki-e and harigaki in gold and silver with pinks and bell flowers on the exterior and bush clover on the interior, the central image a copper panel painted in oils with the Virgin Mary crowned gazing tenderly at the sleeping Christ Child, her hands together in prayer, St. Joseph standing at her right and the infant St. John the Baptist, his left forefinger at his lips and holding a cross draped with a ribbon inscribed Ecce Agnus Dei, the whole above a gilt inscription in Roman script typically contracted reading Egodormio et Cor Mev. Vi-gi-lat (‘Ego dormio et cor meum vigilat’ is a quotation from the Old Testament Song of Solomon (also known as the Song of Songs), chapter 5, verse 2, in the Vulgate Latin version. It may be translated as ‘While I sleep, my heart is watchful’, and is here being applied to the Christ child); the copper panel below set in a glazed frame and with a separate shaped pediment all painted with the characteristic Nanban tendril