Early and Buddhist Stone Sculpture of Japan

Early and Buddhist Stone Sculpture of Japan PDF Author: Asoke Kumar Bhattacharyya
Publisher: Abhinav Publications
ISBN: 9788170174226
Category : Buddhist sculpture
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
Japan S Iconographical Material Covers Buddhism, Shintoism And A Few Other Smaller Sects In That Country. Yet Buddhist Iconography Sculptural And In Painting Constitutes By Far The Greatest In Number And Variety. Further, Again, Wood Sculpture In That Land Of Wood-Yielding Vegetation, Forms The Greater Measure Of Iconographic Material. In Fact, Japan Is Not So Fortunate In The Availability Of Stone That Can Stand Fine Chiselling Or Carving, As Chine And India. With This Background It As But Reasonable Justified That Specialist Study Of Stone Sculpture In Icons And Other Subjects Is Undertaken And Brought To The Notice Of Scholars And The Lay Public. In Doing So, The Available Stone Material: Early Artifacts, Religious Icons And Other Subjects Have Been Presented Here In Eight Sections And A Map. The Section Deal With Early Artefacts, Decorative Sculptures, Lanterns, Pagodas, Engravings, Buddha Images, Images Of The Buddhist Pantheon And Biku, Bikuni & Rakans.The Over All Survey Made Of The Sculptures Of The Buddha And The Buddhist Pantheon In Stone In Japan, Is A Unique Contribution To The Study Of Buddhist Iconography In General And That In Japan In Particular.

Early and Buddhist Stone Sculpture of Japan

Early and Buddhist Stone Sculpture of Japan PDF Author: Asoke Kumar Bhattacharyya
Publisher: Abhinav Publications
ISBN: 9788170174226
Category : Buddhist sculpture
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
Japan S Iconographical Material Covers Buddhism, Shintoism And A Few Other Smaller Sects In That Country. Yet Buddhist Iconography Sculptural And In Painting Constitutes By Far The Greatest In Number And Variety. Further, Again, Wood Sculpture In That Land Of Wood-Yielding Vegetation, Forms The Greater Measure Of Iconographic Material. In Fact, Japan Is Not So Fortunate In The Availability Of Stone That Can Stand Fine Chiselling Or Carving, As Chine And India. With This Background It As But Reasonable Justified That Specialist Study Of Stone Sculpture In Icons And Other Subjects Is Undertaken And Brought To The Notice Of Scholars And The Lay Public. In Doing So, The Available Stone Material: Early Artifacts, Religious Icons And Other Subjects Have Been Presented Here In Eight Sections And A Map. The Section Deal With Early Artefacts, Decorative Sculptures, Lanterns, Pagodas, Engravings, Buddha Images, Images Of The Buddhist Pantheon And Biku, Bikuni & Rakans.The Over All Survey Made Of The Sculptures Of The Buddha And The Buddhist Pantheon In Stone In Japan, Is A Unique Contribution To The Study Of Buddhist Iconography In General And That In Japan In Particular.

Wisdom Embodied

Wisdom Embodied PDF Author: Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
ISBN: 1588393992
Category : Buddhist sculpture
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art --

Kamakura

Kamakura PDF Author: Ive Covaci
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300215770
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
Catalog of the exhibition at the Asia Society Museum, New York, February 9-May 8, 2016.

Right Thoughts at the Last Moment

Right Thoughts at the Last Moment PDF Author: Jacqueline I. Stone
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824867653
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 633

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Book Description
Buddhists across Asia have often aspired to die with a clear and focused mind, as the historical Buddha himself is said to have done. This book explores how the ideal of dying with right mindfulness was appropriated, disseminated, and transformed in premodern Japan, focusing on the late tenth through early fourteenth centuries. By concentrating one’s thoughts on the Buddha in one’s last moments, it was said even an ignorant and sinful person could escape the cycle of deluded rebirth and achieve birth in a buddha’s pure land, where liberation would be assured. Conversely, the slightest mental distraction at that final juncture could send even a devout practitioner tumbling down into the hells or other miserable rebirth realms. The ideal of mindful death thus generated both hope and anxiety and created a demand for ritual specialists who could act as religious guides at the deathbed. Buddhist death management in Japan has been studied chiefly from the standpoint of funerals and mortuary rites. Right Thoughts at the Last Moment investigates a largely untold side of that story: how early medieval Japanese prepared for death, and how desire for ritual assistance in one’s last hours contributed to Buddhist preeminence in death-related matters. It represents the first book-length study in a Western language to examine how the Buddhist ideal of mindful death was appropriated in a specific historical context. Practice for one’s last hours occupied the intersections of multiple, often disparate approaches that Buddhism offered for coping with death. Because they crossed sectarian lines and eventually permeated all social levels, deathbed practices afford insights into broader issues in medieval Japanese religion, including intellectual developments, devotional practices, pollution concerns, ritual performance, and divisions of labor among religious professionals. They also allow us to see beyond the categories of “old” versus “new” Buddhism, or establishment Buddhism versus marginal heterodoxies, which have characterized much scholarship to date. Enlivened by cogent examples, this study draws on a wealth of sources including ritual instructions, hagiographies, doctrinal writings, didactic tales, courtier diaries, historical records, letters, and relevant art historical material to explore the interplay of doctrinal ideals and on-the-ground practice.

Buddhist Art of Myanmar

Buddhist Art of Myanmar PDF Author: Sylvia Fraser-Lu
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300209452
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
A stunning showcase of exceptional and rare works of Buddhist art, presented to the international community for the first time The practice of Buddhism in Myanmar (Burma) has resulted in the production of dazzling objects since the 5th century. This landmark publication presents the first overview of these magnificent works of art from major museums in Myanmar and collections in the United States, including sculptures, paintings, textiles, and religious implements created for temples and monasteries, or for personal devotion. Many of these pieces have never before been seen outside of Myanmar. Accompanied by brilliant color photography, essays by Sylvia Fraser-Lu, Donald M. Stadtner, and scholars from around the world synthesize the history of Myanmar from the ancient through colonial periods and discuss the critical links between religion, geography, governance, historiography, and artistic production. The authors examine the multiplicity of styles and techniques throughout the country, the ways Buddhist narratives have been conveyed through works of art, and the context in which the diverse objects were used. Certain to be the essential resource on the subject, Buddhist Art of Myanmar illuminates two millennia of rarely seen masterpieces.

The Art of Gandhara in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Art of Gandhara in the Metropolitan Museum of Art PDF Author: Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
ISBN: 1588392244
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description


How to Read Buddhist Art

How to Read Buddhist Art PDF Author: Kurt Behrendt
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
ISBN: 1588396738
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 139

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Book Description
Intended to inspire the devout and provide a focus for religious practice, Buddhist artworks stand at the center of a great religious tradition that swept across Asia during the first millennia. How to Read Buddhist Art assembles fifty-four masterpieces from The Met collection to explore how images of the Buddha crossed linguistic and cultural barriers, and how they took on different (yet remarkably consistent) characteristics in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Himalayas, China, Korea, Japan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, and Indonesia. Works highlighted in this rich, concise overview include reliquaries, images of the Buddha that attempt to capture his transcendence, diverse bodhisattvas who protect and help the devout on their personal path, and representations of important teachers. The book offers the essential iconographic frameworks needed to understand Buddhist art and practice, helping the reader to appreciate how artists gave form to subtle aspects of the teachings, especially in the sublime expression of the Buddha himself.

Chinese Buddhist Bronzes

Chinese Buddhist Bronzes PDF Author: Hugo Munsterberg
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780878173242
Category : Art, Buddhist
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description


The Face of Jizo

The Face of Jizo PDF Author: Hank Glassman
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824860373
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
“Farther on, I find other figures of Jizo, single reliefs, sculptured upon tombs. But one of these is a work of art so charming that I feel a pain at being obliged to pass it by. More sweet, assuredly, than any imaged Christ, this dream in white stone of the playfellow of dead children, like a beautiful young boy, with gracious eyelids half closed, and face made heavenly by such a smile as only Buddhist art could have imagined, the smile of infinite lovingness and supremest gentleness. Indeed, so charming the ideal of Jizo is that in the speech of the people a beautiful face is always likened to his—‘Jizo-kao,’ as the face of Jizo.” —Lafcadio Hearn, Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan (1894) Stone images of the Buddhist deity Jizo—bedecked in a red cloth bib and presiding over offerings of flowers, coins, candles, and incense—are a familiar sight throughout Japan. Known in China as a savior from hell’s torment, Jizo in Japan came to be utterly transformed through fusion with the local tradition of kami worship and ancient fertility cults. In particular, the Jizo cult became associated with gods of borders or transitions: the stone gods known as dosojin. Although the study of Jizo is often relegated to the folkloric, Hank Glassman, in this highly original and readable book, demonstrates that the bodhisattva’s cult was promoted and embraced at the most elite levels of society. The Face of Jizo explores the stories behind sculptural and painted images of Jizo to reveal a fascinating cultural history. Employing the methodologies of the early twentieth-century renegade art historian Aby Warburg, Glassman’s focus on the visual culture of medieval Japanese religion is not concerned with the surface form or iconographical lineages of Jizo’s images, but with the social, ritual, and narrative contexts that bring the icons to life. He skillfully weaves together many elements of the Jizo cult—doctrine, ritual, cosmology, iconography—to animate the images he examines. Thus The Face of Jizo is truly a work of iconology in the Warburgian sense. Glassman’s choice to examine the cult of Jizo through the medium of the icon makes for a most engaging and approachable history of this “most Japanese” of Buddhist deities.

Early Buddhist Narrative Art

Early Buddhist Narrative Art PDF Author: Patricia Eichenbaum Karetzky
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN: 9780761816713
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Early Buddhist Narrative Art is a pictorial journey through the transmission of the narrative cycle based on the life of the historical Buddha. Karetzky, while demonstrating the various evolutions that the image of the Buddha underwent, maintains that there is an underlying homogeneity of the tradition in the cultures of India, Central Asia, China and Japan. The author, while focusing on the visual representation of the Buddhist narrative, goes into some detail regarding the importance of scriptures in each society, and how the written tradition informed the pictorial. Over seventy photos fill this book, which will be of interest to scholars of art history, Eastern religion and Buddhism in particular.