This work was commissioned by **Hōshō-in, a Sōtō Zen Buddhist temple in Yamanashi Prefecture**, as a hanging scroll to be displayed during **Kanbutsu-e (the Flower Festival)**, the celebration of the Buddha’s birth.

The subject requested by the temple’s head priest was the scene of the Buddha’s birth.

According to Buddhist tradition, when the Buddha was born, two dragon kings, **Ānanda Nāga Rāja and Upananda Nāga Rāja**, caused a heavenly rain of sweet nectar to fall, bathing the newborn Buddha.

These two dragon kings also appear in paintings depicting the Buddha’s passing into Nirvana and have long been portrayed as beings closely associated with him.

When we think of the birth of the Buddha, the familiar image is that of the newborn Buddha pointing one hand toward the heavens and the other toward the earth, proclaiming, “Above heaven and below heaven, I alone am honored.”

However, what I wanted to portray in this work was not the Buddha as an already deified figure.

Even the Buddha, who would later share his teachings with countless people, must once have experienced a moment when he was simply a newborn child.

With this thought in mind, I imagined him watched over by the two dragon kings, quietly sleeping among lotus flowers.

I wanted to preserve the sacred dignity befitting the Buddha, while at the same time expressing the softness, innocence, and tenderness of a sleeping baby.

The rain of sweet nectar falling from the two dragon kings is expressed through **kirikane**, a traditional Japanese technique using finely cut pieces of metal leaf. As the viewing angle and light change, the gold catches the light, creating the impression of a luminous rain gently falling upon the newborn Buddha.