Lotus Sutra with Each Character on a Lotus, Chapter 28 (Ichiji rendai Hokekyō, Fugen Bosatsu kanbotsu-hon)
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.This precious Heian-period Lotus Sutra places every character of the sutra atop its own lotus flower pedestal surrounded by delicately drawn circles of gold ink, as if each sacred word were a Buddha icon with a radiant mandorla. By the late twelfth century, elite patrons were creating a new kind of Genji Lotus Sutra. In this type, frontispieces combined poems and pictorial motifs from the tale with the content of the sutra, ritually dedicated to save Murasaki Shikibu and her readers from the sin of succumbing to seductive fictions. This scroll’s unique frontispiece painting, depicting a group of Buddhist priests officiating at a ceremony on behalf of the aristocratic men and women shown on the veranda, could be one example of a Genji sutra.
Artwork Details
- 一字蓮台法華経 「普賢菩薩勧発品」
- Title: Lotus Sutra with Each Character on a Lotus, Chapter 28 (Ichiji rendai Hokekyō, Fugen Bosatsu kanbotsu-hon)
- Artist: Unidentified artist
- Period: Heian period (794–1185)
- Date: 12th century
- Culture: Japan
- Medium: Handscroll; ink, color, and gold on paper
- Dimensions: Image: 10 1/4 in. × 10 ft. 6 7/8 in. (26 × 322.2 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Lent by Museum Yamato Bunkakan
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art