Artworks

Priest’s robe (kesa)

Artwork · Anonymous · 19th century · kesa · Victoria and Albert Museum

A kesa, the patchwork robe of the Buddha and his first mendicant disciples, here created from a single length of brocade figured with butterflies and peonies — and adorned with patches bearing Sanskrit seed syllables, among them “Hum”, the last of the mantra of Kannon, “Om mani padme hum”. 1 Mason 2005, p. 311, fig. 361. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.