‘Three Khorlo’ uchishiki drawing, Japan, Meiji (circa 1880), 76x41cm. An ‘uchishiki’ was a triangular cloth used to cover the front and sides of altars in Buddhist temples. Such cloths were presented to the temple by devotees and, whilst most were obtained - in the very spirit of Buddhism - by recycling discarded fabrics, others were custom-made on purpose and were displaying heavily embroidered auspicious designs. To properly embroider, a ‘guide’ or sample-drawing was needed. What we are offering here are such tools: on meticulously joined hand-made Japanese paper, auspicious motifs such a dragons, lion-dogs, turtles, etc were skilfully drawn with China ink. Usually of high quality drawing, and ‘signed’ by the artist with his own red stamp, these are objects worth collecting on their own, and a lucky find from the depot of a Kyoto-based studio of uchishiki-makers, whose archives tell us these little jewels can be assigned to the second half of the 19th century. The present one displays three eight-spoke wheels (khorlo) amid clouds, thus symbolizing the supremacy of the religious Law. In fact, in early Buddhist art the wheel represented the Buddha, whose teaching caused the wheel of the law to turn. Bit of foxing on paper. Refined drawing.