木喰上人賛 神号・三社託宣|Sacred Names of Shinto Deities and the "Oracles of the Three Shrines"

Mokujiki Shōnin

1805 · Hanging scroll; ink on paper · Asian Art

The term mingei, generally translated as “folk art,” is often applied to the works of Mokujiki Shōnin, an itinerant priest and amateur artist who sculpted rough-hewn Buddhist deities and gods of good fortune. However, he was also a calligrapher, and his brush writing exhibits the same energy and heartfelt piety that appear in his sculptural works. Here, he inscribed the names of Shinto kami regarded as local manifestations of Buddhas and bodhisattvas, followed by the “Oracles of the Three Shrines” (Sansha takusen). The scroll is an example of calligraphic works that became devotional objects for people unable to travel to the great Shinto shrines of Ise, in Mie Prefecture; Iwashimizu Hachimangū, in Kyoto; and Kasuga, in Nara.

Artist

Mokujiki Shōnin

Date

1805

Medium

Hanging scroll; ink on paper

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Purchase, Ryo Toyonaga and Alvin E. Friedman-Kien Gift, 2016