Artworks

Reincarnation (Tenshō)

Artwork · Hirakushi Denchū · 1920 · sculpture · Tokyo University of the Arts

The masterpiece of Hirakushi Denchū (1872–1979), a student of Kōun who kept to traditional materials: a male figure in a loincloth steps forward and leans over as if to vomit, a tiny human figure emerging from his mouth — a wrathful Buddhist guardian like Fudō or the Niō, with a halo of flames, or an official of hell, spitting out a loathsome wretch unworthy of release from the cycle of rebirth. 1 Mason 2005, pp. 360–361, fig. 425. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.