Artworks

Frontispiece to the Hannyaharamita kyō (Chūsonji sutra)

Artwork · Anonymous · 12th century · sutra · Nara National Museum

From the sutras once kept at Chūsonji in Hiraizumi, written in gold and silver ink on indigo-dyed paper — a fashion shared with Korea, though this is certainly a Japanese production. The frontispiece shows Shaka in gold on a high lotus throne turning the Wheel of the Law on Vulture Peak, flanked by two bodhisattvas and his disciples, with tiny worshippers — perhaps the commissioners — in the foreground; a palace building recalls Amida’s paradise, and soft hills dotted with trees are pure yamato-e. The gold and silver are applied in thick washes, a kind of tsukuri-e. 1 Mason 2005, pp. 159–160, fig. 193. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.