歌川国芳画　「高祖御一代略図　 佐州流刑角田波題目」|Concise Illustrated Biography of Monk Nichiren: Calming the Stormy Sea at Tsunoda in Exile to Sado Island

Utagawa Kuniyoshi

1835–36 · Woodblock print; ink and color on paper · Asian Art

The story of the life of Nichiren (1222–1282), the iconoclastic founder of the sect of Buddhism that bears his name, has inspired legions of his followers to the present day. Kuniyoshi’s series of prints captures the dramatic moments of the priest’s biography, including this scene of a vision of the sect’s main devotion, the invocation “Praise to the Sutra of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma [Namu Myōhō Renge Kyo],” in the ocean waves as Nichiren travels to exile in 1272.

Artist

Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Date

1835–36

Medium

Woodblock print; ink and color on paper

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Henry L. Phillips Collection, Bequest of Henry L. Phillips, 1939