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Chōmeiji Temple Pilgrimage Mandala

second quarter 16th century
Not on view
This painting captures the activities of a spring day at Chōmeiji Temple, situated on a hill overlooking Lake Biwa, just east of Kyoto. A wealth of details relates the activities of the temple monks and visitors, who visited the temple to make offerings to the central object of worship, an eleven-headed Kannon, the bodhisattva of compassion. Pilgrimage mandalas (sankei mandara) like this one relate the miraculous stories and seasonal activities of famous temples or shrines. Itinerant preachers used them in a form of storytelling known as etoki, or “picture-narration.” This example was no doubt employed to help raise funds for the rebuilding of the Chōmeiji Temple complex after it was razed by fire in 1516.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 長命寺参詣曼荼羅図屏風
  • Title: Chōmeiji Temple Pilgrimage Mandala
  • Period: Muromachi period (1392–1573)
  • Date: second quarter 16th century
  • Culture: Japan
  • Medium: Hanging scroll remounted as a two-panel folding screen; ink, color, gofun (ground shell pigment), and gold on paper
  • Dimensions: Image: 58 3/8 × 63 3/8 in. (148.3 × 161 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Sue Cassidy Clark Gift, in honor of D. Max Moerman, 2016
  • Object Number: 2016.517
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

More Artwork

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Chōmeiji Temple (Chōmeiji), from the series Miracles of Kannon , Utagawa Hiroshige II 二代目歌川広重 (upper) Japanese, Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper, Japan

Chōmeiji Temple (Chōmeiji), from the series Miracles of Kannon

Utagawa Hiroshige II 二代目歌川広重
Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III) 歌川国貞(三代歌川豊国)
1859
Mandala of Kumano Shrine, Unidentified artist, Hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on silk, Japan
Mandala of Kumano Shrine
Unidentified artist
early 14th century
Horse Race at the Kamo Shrine, Unidentified Artist, Six-panel folding screen; ink, color, silver, and gold leaf on paper, Japan
Horse Race at the Kamo Shrine
Unidentified
ca. 1600
Mandala of Kasuga Shrine, Hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on silk, Japan
Mandala of Kasuga Shrine
Japan
early 14th century
Illustrated Legends of the Origins of the Kumano Shrines , Set of three handscrolls; ink and color on paper, Japan

Illustrated Legends of the Origins of the Kumano Shrines

Japan
late 16th–early 17th century

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