Kana Letter on Stamped Images of Buddha early 13th century Japan Brushed in elegant cursive characters, mostly in kana (Japanese phonetic writing), this treasured letter of Monk J?gy? has in recent years been sumptuously remounted as a hanging scroll. J?gy?, as the third son of first Kamakura Shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147–1199), was born into the most powerful military family of the day, but he eschewed the political infighting between the palace in Kyoto and shogunate in eastern Japan, and took Buddhist vows at an early age. He trained at Ninnaji in Kyoto and rose in monastic ranks to bec

• Contributor: MET/BOT / Alamy Stock Photo
• Image ID: 2HH3BR7
• File size: 34.3 MB (2.4 MB Compressed download)
• Releases: Model - no | Property - no
• Dimensions: 4000 x 2998 px | 33.9 x 25.4 cm | 13.3 x 10 inches | 300dpi
• Date taken: 21 January 2022

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Kana Letter on Stamped Images of Buddha early 13th century Japan Brushed in elegant cursive characters, mostly in kana (Japanese phonetic writing), this treasured letter of Monk J?gy? has in recent years been sumptuously remounted as a hanging scroll. J?gy?, as the third son of first Kamakura Shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147–1199), was born into the most powerful military family of the day, but he eschewed the political infighting between the palace in Kyoto and shogunate in eastern Japan, and took Buddhist vows at an early age. He trained at Ninnaji in Kyoto and rose in monastic ranks to become an important Shingon prelate. To have rare example of thirteenth-century calligraphy of an esteemed religious figure is worthy of preservation and display in and of itself. Yet, the viewer immediately understands that something more complex is at work here, since printed images of Amida show through from the reverse side, creating an intriguing visual dialectic of the transcendental realm of the Buddhas and the secular world represented by an informal communication in the vernacular (not a Buddhist treatise or sutra). Such printed sheets are usually called “stamped Buddhas” (inbutsu ??), though sometimes the term “printed Buddhas” (suribotoke ??, also pronounced or sh?butsu) is used, though that term is properly reserved for when the sheet of paper is placed on top of the ink block. Sometimes large prints with a hundred or more were created; for instance see the example from the Cowles Collection comprising one hundred images of Fud? My??, created by stamping the same block to create ten rows.This letter belongs to a cache of personal letters, sutras, other religious documents and objects that were placed inside statues of the Amida Triad, created in the Kamakura period, at Gob?jakuj?’in subtemple at K?yasan, the headquarters of the Shingon sect. When the sculptures were being examined in the 1910s, many similar letters and documents were discovered, including a