Download or read book Living Images written by Robert H. Sharf and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays in this volume focus on the historical, institutional, and ritual context of a number of Japanese Buddhist paintings, sculptures, calligraphies, and relics?some celebrated, others long overlooked.
Download or read book Buddhism and the Arts of Japan written by Richard B. Pilgrim and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few aspects of American military history have been as vigorously debated as Harry Truman's decision to use atomic bombs against Japan. In this carefully crafted volume, Michael Kort describes the wartime circumstances and thinking that form the context for the decision to use these weapons, surveys the major debates related to that decision, and provides a comprehensive collection of key primary source documents that illuminate the behavior of the United States and Japan during the closing days of World War II. Kort opens with a summary of the debate over Hiroshima as it has evolved since 1945. He then provides a historical overview of thye events in question, beginning with the decision and program to build the atomic bomb. Detailing the sequence of events leading to Japan's surrender, he revisits the decisive battles of the Pacific War and the motivations of American and Japanese leaders. Finally, Kort examines ten key issues in the discussion of Hiroshima and guides readers to relevant primary source documents, scholarly books, and articles.
Download or read book Japanese Buddhist Art in Context written by Patricia Frame Rugola and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 1986.
Download or read book Muroji written by Sherry D. Fowler and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2005-03-31 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Murōji, a magnificent temple founded in the eighth century, is known both for its dramatic location and the exceptional quality of its ritual objects and art dating from the ninth and tenth centuries of the Heian period. Sherry Fowler makes extensive use of primary sources to explore the circumstances surrounding the creation and function of the temple’s main images and considers why major works of early Heian sculpture were housed in such a remote mountain setting. Employing a multifaceted approach that looks at Murōji’s art and architecture in socio-political context, she explores the establishment of the temple, its role in the religious life and power structure of the region, and the ways in which the temple reconfigured its early history to suit its later circumstances. Emerging from Fowler’s study are pervasive themes relating to worship and practice at Murōji that highlight plurality of practice (of different schools of Buddhism as well as Shinto); flexibility of practice and its impact on sculptural icons; the relationship of Murōji to other temple/shrine complexes; and the association of the temple with women’s worship.
Download or read book Behold the Buddha written by James C. Dobbins and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Images of the Buddha are everywhere—not just in temples but also in museums and homes and online—but what these images mean largely depends on the background and circumstance of those viewing them. In Behold the Buddha, James Dobbins invites readers to imagine how premodern Japanese Buddhists understood and experienced icons in temple settings long before the advent of museums and the internet. Although widely portrayed in the last century as visual emblems of great religious truths or as exquisite works of Asian art, Buddhist images were traditionally treated as the very embodiment of the Buddha, his palpable presence among people. Hence, Buddhists approached them as living entities in their own right—that is, as awakened icons with whom they could interact religiously. Dobbins begins by reflecting on art museums, where many non-Buddhists first encounter images of the Buddha, before outlining the complex Western response to them in previous centuries. He next elucidates images as visual representations of the story of the Buddha’s life followed by an overview of the physical attributes and symbolic gestures found in Buddhist iconography. A variety of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and other divinities commonly depicted in Japanese Buddhism is introduced, and their “living” quality discussed in the context of traditional temples and Buddhist rituals. Finally, other religious objects in Japanese Buddhism—relics, scriptures, inscriptions, portraits of masters, and sacred sites—are explained using the Buddhist icon as a model. Dobbins concludes by contemplating art museums further as potential sites for discerning the religious character of Buddhist images. Those interested in Buddhism generally who would like to learn more about its rich iconography—whether encountered in temples or museums—will find much in this concise, well-illustrated volume to help them “behold the Buddha.”
Download or read book Faith and Power in Japanese Buddhist Art 1600 2005 written by Patricia J. Graham and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2007-09-30 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Faith and Power in Japanese Buddhist Art explores the transformation of Buddhism from the premodern to the contemporary era in Japan and the central role its visual culture has played in this transformation. Although Buddhism is generally regarded as peripheral to modern Japanese society, this book demonstrates otherwise. Its chapters elucidate the thread of change over time in the practice of Buddhism as revealed in temple worship halls and other sites of devotion and in imagery representing the religion’s most popular deities and religious practices. It also introduces the work of modern and contemporary artists who are not generally associated with institutional Buddhism and its canonical visual requirements but whose faith inspires their art. The author makes a persuasive argument that the neglect of these materials by scholars results from erroneous presumptions about the aesthetic superiority of early Japanese Buddhist artifacts and an asserted decline in the institutional power of the religion after the sixteenth century. She demonstrates that recent works constitute a significant contribution to the history of Japanese art and architecture, providing evidence of Buddhism’s compelling presence at all levels of Japanese society and its evolution in response to the needs of new generations of supporters.
Download or read book History of Art in Japan written by Nobuo Tsuji and published by . This book was released on 2019-08-27 with total page 632 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book the leading authority on Japanese art history sheds light on how Japan has nurtured distinctive aesthetics, prominent artists, and movements that have achieved global influence and popularity. The History of Art in Japan discusses works ranging from earthenware figurines in 13,000 BCE to manga, anime, and modern subcultures.
Download or read book Word Embodied written by Halle O'Neal and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-10-26 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In this study of the Japanese jeweled pagoda mandalas, Halle O’Neal reveals the entangled realms of sacred body, beauty, and salvation. Much of the previous scholarship on these paintings concentrates on formal analysis and iconographic study of their narrative vignettes. This has marginalized the intriguing interplay of text and image at their heart, precluding a holistic understanding of the mandalas and diluting their full import in Buddhist visual culture. Word Embodied offers an alternative methodology, developing interdisciplinary insights into the social, religious, and artistic implications of this provocative entwining of word and image.O’Neal unpacks the paintings’ revolutionary use of text as picture to show how this visual conflation mirrors important conceptual indivisibilities in medieval Japan. The textual pagoda projects the complex constellation of relics, reliquaries, scripture, and body in religious doctrine, practice, and art. Word Embodied also expands our thinking about the demands of viewing, recasting the audience as active producers of meaning and offering a novel perspective on disciplinary discussions of word and image that often presuppose an ontological divide between them. This examination of the jeweled pagoda mandalas, therefore, recovers crucial dynamics underlying Japanese Buddhist art, including invisibility, performative viewing, and the spectacular visualizations of embodiment."
Download or read book Buddhist Art in Its Relation to Buddhist Ideals with Special Reference to Buddhism in Japan written by Masaharu Anesaki and published by . This book was released on 1915 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Explaining Pictures written by Ikumi Kaminishi and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2006-02-28 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Early Japanese Buddhism was patronized by the literate classes and remained a prerogative of the elite until the end of the twelfth century. With the fiscal and political decline of its aristocratic patrons, the Buddhist establishment turned increasingly to lay commoners for financial support, using paintings to accommodate its new, and often subliterate, audiences. One type of preaching, known as etoki (pictorial decipherment), helped bridge the worlds of esoteric Buddhism and lay practice and reveals much about the role of art in the context of didactic storytelling and proselytization. Beginning with the provocative claim that the popularization of Buddhism in the medieval period was a phenomenon of visual culture, Explaining Pictures reexamines the history (and historiography) of medieval Japanese Buddhism. With theoretical sophistication and a full appreciation of the power of imagery to convey and control religious meaning, it investigates a range of aspects of etoki, including the particularly active role of itinerant nuns, whose performances were especially edifying to female audiences, as well as the visual hagiography of the reputed founder of Japanese Buddhism, the pictorial projections of Buddhist paradise and hell, and the explanation, through visual imagery, of sacred mountains. Part One presents the social history of etoki as it appears in a broad variety of written sources from the tenth to fifteenth centuries and investigates how etoki helped establish the cult of Shotôku Taishi. Part Two covers the period between the late twelfth and fourteenth centuries with a focus on Pure Land Buddhist propaganda and its use in etoki practice. Etoki sermons on the Taima Mandala, the visual description of the Pure Land Buddhist canons, show how envisioning the land of bliss substitutes for meditative concentration to gain enlightenment. Ikumi Kaminishi next turns to the itinerant etoki proselytes and similar performing artists between the fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries. These individuals preached on the road and through their missionary work reached out to commoners, turning etoki into an effective method of imparting religious beliefs and soliciting alms. In the late medieval period, audiences regarded itinerant preachers much like traveling artists and vendors, which has led modern scholars to conclude that etoki priests desecrated religious rituals. Kaminishi reconsiders this historiographical problem in relation to the social meaning of itinerant performing artists of the period. Finally, the she examines etoki’s effect on the popularization of sacred mountain worship (in particular Kumano and Tateyama)during the seventeen through nineteenth centuries. Chapters focus on the Kumano propaganda image used by nuns, how Christian religious imagery was exploited in seventeenth-century Buddhist propaganda, and the ways in which etoki campaigns made the remote Tateyama a popular pilgrimage site in early modern times. Explaining Pictures is an important groundbreaking work, the first book-length study devoted to the phenomenon of Buddhist art as religious propaganda and pictorial storytelling as a form of popular culture in medieval Japan. A truly interdisciplinary study, it suggests fruitful avenues of discussion between art historians and historians of Japanese Buddhism. Scholars and students with an interest in Japanese Buddhism, art, and social and cultural history will find its examination of significant issues fresh and stimulating. It will also find an appreciative audience among those concerned with the relationship between art and religion, the mechanics of proselytization, and Asian visual culture.
Download or read book Buddhist Art in Its Relation to Buddhist Ideals written by Masaharu Anesaki and published by . This book was released on 1915 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Enlightenment Embodied written by Hiromitsu Washizuka and published by Japan Society Gallery. This book was released on 1997 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Catalog of the first exhibition in the US to emphasize on the connection between the aesthetic considerations and construction techniques of Japanese Buddhist sculptors.
Download or read book Buddhist Art in Its Relationship to Buddhist Ideals written by Masaharu Anesaki and published by . This book was released on 1915 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Preserving the Dharma written by John M. Rosenfield and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this beautifully illustrated book, eminent art historian John Rosenfield explores the life and art of the Japanese Buddhist monk Hozan Tankai (1629–1716). Through a close examination of sculptures, paintings, ritual implements, and primary documents, the book demonstrates how the Shingon prelate's artistic activities were central to his important place in the world of late-seventeenth-century Japanese Buddhism. At the same time, the book shows the richness of early modern Japanese Buddhist art, which has often been neglected and undervalued. Tankai was firmly committed to the spiritual disciplines of mountain Buddhism—seclusion, severe asceticism, meditation, and ritual. But in the 1680s, after being appointed head of a small, run-down temple on the slopes of Mount Ikoma, near Nara, he revealed that he was also a gifted artist and administrator. He embarked on an ambitious campaign of constructing temple halls and commissioning icons, and the Ikoma temple, soon renamed Hōzanji, became a vibrant center of popular Buddhism, as it remains today. He was a remarkably productive artist, and by the end of his life more than 150 works were associated with him. A major reconsideration of a key artistic and religious figure, Preserving the Dharma brings much-needed attention to an overlooked period of Japanese Buddhist art.
Download or read book The Great Eastern Temple written by John M. Rosenfield and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1986 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Indian Influence on the Art of Japan written by Sampa Biswas and published by Northern Book Centre. This book was released on 2010 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Function and Meaning in Buddhist Art written by K.R. van Kooij and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-08-07 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What was the function of Buddhist art at the time Buddhism was a major religion in large areas of South, East, and South-East Asia? Can we establish what these sculptures and paintings meant to Buddhist believers living at a time when this art fulfilled important religious needs? These questions are discussed, not answered, in a volume about ‘Function and Meaning of Buddhist Art’ which contains the papers of a workshop on this theme held at Leiden University in 1991. While dealing with a variety of themes and subject-matter, sometimes in great detail, sixteen specialists focus on ritual and semantic aspects of Buddhist works of art from countries such as India, China, Japan, Tibet, Thailand, and Indonesia. Recent non-western art-historical publications show an increasing tendency to work with methodological frameworks developed by specialists on western art. Moreover, there are more similarities between Buddhist and other religious art ‘than, literally, meet the eye’. For this reason, two comparative studies are included in which parallels and universals are brought forward. Two main lines emerge in the results offered in this book, the one indicating a tendency to focus on intended meanings; the other concentrating on more than one level of reception of Buddhist art in a liturgical context.
