Artworks

Kongō Yasha, from a set of five Myōō, Tōji

Artwork · Anonymous · 1127 · kakemono · Tō-ji Temple

For the Mishihō rites held in the Shingonin of the imperial palace in the first week of the new year (begun by Kūkai in 834) the Five Myōō were hung as ritual images. Tōji’s original paintings could no longer be used by 1040; the replacements burnt in 1127, and the first new set was rejected by Emperor Toba as too rough and violent — the present set follows another model than Kūkai’s. Kongō Yasha leaps into space in a garment decorated with kirikane, his aura of flames hanging behind him like a curtain: an elegant little creature, nothing like the rough Kongōku of the tenth century. 1 Mason 2005, pp. 157–158, fig. 192. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.