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Hello,
This print is part of a folio made up of mounted plates, pieces of printed tapestry material, and photos of statues, all with an Indian theme.

Someone years ago told it had something to do with a Japanese professor of Indian Art, who traveled to India, apparently to record statues from an excavation, Indian paintings, printed cloth, and as shown in this particular plate, what appears to be from a wall painting or perhaps a cave. As can be seen, the painting was copied in it's current state including paint loss, but not all of them are that way. Some appear to be copied directly from complete Indian Paintings.
Some of the plates appear to be wood block prints which have been hand touched to add gold and silver embellishments.
I photographed the kanji from the back side of this plate, and enlarged it in two pieces.

Each plate appears to have a description of what it is, as well as some kanji that is repeated on all of them.

I am hoping that the translation might tell me what I ned to know for a specific search to find more information.

The collection is in a folio of 29 color plates pasted onto heavy paper, around 10 pieces of printed cloth also pasted onto heavy paper, and around 50 or so photos of statues and archaeological sites which are printed directly onto the same heavy paper.

Help with the translation would be very much appreciated.

Thank you
Best Regards
Gman

Dear Gman,
Sorry I can't help with the Kanji: but I can say that the image is of the Mahasiddha Kukkuripa one of a group of eighty four "Great Adepts" and is listed within that group as one of the "eight great mahasiddhas".
He is usually depicted with a female dog.

Hello Mr. Adams,
Thank you for the information.
These two would appear to belong to the same group.
Hopefully someone can translate the above text which should hopefully give me the actual name of the collection, and maybe even the name of the Japanese professor who compiled the collection.
I need to get back into the photos, there were some shots of various temples which someone might recognize, which may be a clue to the collection as well.
Thanks again!

Cheers!
Gman

Gman,
These are two more Mahasiddhas.
I can't identify the top one but the lower one seated on the tiger is Dombi Heruka.
They and their female attendants are all holding Kapalas or skull cups.
A really good recent text on the Mahasiddhas is called Holy Madness: Portraits of Tantric Siddhas, edited by Rob Linrothe and publidhed by The Rubin Museum of Art, New York and Serindia Publications Chicago.
I am sure you could probably contact Mr. Linrothe via the Rubin Museum. The Rubin Museum is traceable through the links section of this Asianart.com site.
If you go to the "Tibet" section it is the last entry on the fourth page of Tibetan links.
Phillip Adams

It has been a while, but does anyone want to take a shot at translating this caption printed on the back of the paper the first print is mounted on?

So glad to see so many old hands still here.

Cheers Gman

G-Man, this is something I've tried to swear off of because I. Nagy is such a maestro, but since kanji refers to standard Chinese characters in Japan, and in case it takes I. Nagy awhile to find this thread, I've translated from the aspect of my Chinese studies, used online sources for Japanese terms, and no small amount of guesswork elsewhere. The pinyin is there for other Sinophiles.

第十六世紀頃 文學博士高楠順次郎君藏 印度藝術研究會藏版 (Di shi liu shi ji jing wen xue bo shi gao nan shun ci lang jun cang yin du yishu yanjiu hui cang ban)

Circa the 16th Century - Collection of the Man of Letters, Lord Takakusu Junjirou - Buddhist materials from India Art Research Association Publications


印度藝術總覽第三卷第一 雪山修業繪卷(其一) ネポール [Ne-po-ru] 採取 (Yin du yi shu zong lan di san juan di yi xue shan xiu ye 'Neporu' cai qu)

India Survey of Art, Number Three, Volume I - 'Snowy Mountain' Studies in Scroll Paintings, Nepal Selections

Good luck,

Bill H.

Here's the Wikipedia.org page on Takakusu Junjiro:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takakusu_Junjiro

Cheers,

Bill H

Hi Bill H.
Thank you so much for your studies on my behalf!
I am excited to have something to learn more about, I have had this collection for about thirty-five years and this is the first breakthrough.

Thank You Bill H.!
Best Regards
Gman

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