Artworks

Message by Emperor Shōmu

Artwork · Emperor Shōmu (the character choku) and a court clerk · 749 · handscroll · Heiden-ji Temple

Part of an imperial decree sent to twelve temples of the Kansai, granting linen, cotton and land and asking for prayers for peace and the spread of Buddhism. The emperor wrote only the large character for choku (imperial decree) at the end; the text is the confident hand of a government clerk, and the ministers signed below. The rescript of the year of Shōmu’s abdication. 1 Mason 2005, p. 47, fig. 48. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.