長命寺参詣曼荼羅図屏風|Chōmeiji Temple Pilgrimage Mandala

Unknown

second quarter 16th century · Hanging scroll remounted as a two-panel folding screen; ink, color, gofun (ground shell pigment), and gold on paper · Asian Art

This painting captures the activities of a spring day at Chōmeiji Temple, situated on a hill overlooking Lake Biwa, just east of Kyoto. A wealth of details relates the activities of the temple monks and visitors, who visited the temple to make offerings to the central object of worship, an eleven-headed Kannon, the bodhisattva of compassion. Pilgrimage mandalas (sankei mandara) like this one relate the miraculous stories and seasonal activities of famous temples or shrines. Itinerant preachers used them in a form of storytelling known as etoki, or “picture-narration.” This example was no doubt employed to help raise funds for the rebuilding of the Chōmeiji Temple complex after it was razed by fire in 1516.

Artist

Unknown

Date

second quarter 16th century

Medium

Hanging scroll remounted as a two-panel folding screen; ink, color, gofun (ground shell pigment), and gold on paper

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Purchase, Sue Cassidy Clark Gift, in honor of D. Max Moerman, 2016