Hiten plays an important role as a celestial being – flying, dancing, playing heavenly music and raining flowers, in praise of Lord Buddha.

Many of the Hiten are portrayed as dressed up like women, so they are often called celestial maidens. However, they have no gender. Some play music with Sho (Japanese free reed musical instrument) and transverse flute, others hold baskets full of beautiful flower petals and scatter them out in the air…Every Hiten is so fascinating!

In this work, I drew one Hiten playing the transverse flute and the other scattering flower petals, and as if both are flying towards the main hall.

Taking advantage of the beautiful grains of the wood, I used light blue or pink paint and also included pearl paint to dye it, thus producing a gradation effect.

The wood grains cause uneven dyeing, but here I have boldly emphasized that unevenness to represent clouds. The light color of the pearl has a glittering effect in the sunlight.