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BUDDHISM & SHINTŌISM IN JAPAN

A-TO-Z PHOTO DICTIONARY OF

JAPANESE RELIGIOUS SCULPTURE & ART









This photo library & dictionary is a labor of love. After moving to Japan in 1993, I became intrigued by the many deities & faces of Japanese Buddhism & Shintōism. There are dozens of Buddhist temples & Shintō shrines near my home in Kamakura, many dating from the 8th to 13th centuries, many open to the public. There are 400+ deities herein, & 4,000+ photos of statuary from Kamakura, Nara, Kyoto, & elsewhere in Japan. Use the search box to search in English, Japanese, Chinese, or Korean for deities not listed at left. Any mistakes or omissions at this site are my responsibility. Please contact me if you discover any. In July 2006, I launched the online store Buddhist-Artwork. It sells quality hand-carved wood Buddhist statues from Japan & China. It is aimed at art lovers, Buddhist devotees, & laity alike. IMPORTANT PRIVACY NOTE:

This is an open-access educational web site. This site

is safe, secure, and encrypted.

Your private data is not collected.









Japan's deities wear masks

to protect people from corona.



VIDEOS / INTERVIEWS

Video Archives ►

Interview (Aug. 2010) ►

PREFACE

TIMELINE

TECHNICAL MATTERS

Romanization. In most cases, this site uses the Hepburn system of romanization. Nonetheless, there is no fully satisfactory way of romanizing Japanese (or, for that matter, Chinese, Tibetan, Korean, or Sanskrit). To provide as much precision as possible, the Japanese ideograms (kanji) are presented, showing both the standard Japanese spelling and its hiragana equivalent.



Japanese Names. Family names come before first names. Japanese do not have middle names.



Deity Classification. Follows same scheme as that of the Japanese and their Buddhist scholars.



Era Names & Dates. Standard dating scheme found in both Japan and the West.



Ancient refers to the Asuka and Nara periods (538-794)



Classical refers to the Heian period (794-1184)



Medieval refers to the Kamakura period (1185-1332) through the Edo era (1600-1868)



Modern refers to everything since then (Meiji era 1868-1912) to modern times.

ABOUT SITE AUTHOR

ABOUT SITE SOURCES

Please see Bibliography for main resources



Sanskrit, Pali, or Chinese documents are seldom used to construct these pages. Most information herein comes from primary resources from the Japanese tradition, temple visits, temple brochures, various dictionaries and guidebooks, museum publications (especially from Kyoto and Nara), and hundreds of web resources. I rely mainly on English and Japanese resources, but try to include Sanskrit, Chinese, and other spellings whenever possible for deity names, sutra titles, et. al. Credits for outside resources are listed above or below the text/image. Credits may also be viewed by holding the mouse momentarily over any specific image. About 50% of the photos are from outside sources, the rest are by me.



I am not “fluent” in Chinese or Japanese, but studied both in undergraduate & graduate school, and attended language schools in both China & Japan. Even so, I struggle often with obscure Buddhist terms & historical references. When comparing different translations of the same sutra or reference work, I sometimes modify the translation to suit my own interpretation. Most of the translations at this site are not mine, however, and such translations are always identified in the credit.

CAVEATS, APOLOGIES, WHAT THIS SITE “IS NOT”

This site is about JAPANESE traditions in Buddhist sculpture and iconography. It is not a “Pan-Asian Iconographic Guide.” First, I am not qualified to discuss Buddhist artistic traditions in India, Tibet, and Mainland Asia. That topic is expansive, and would require the collaborative efforts of scholars and art lovers from many countries. So please bear this in mind as you read these pages. Although I often give the Hindu and Chinese spellings, and try to share Buddhist lore from the broader Asian tradition, this is just my way of “keeping notes” and learning myself about the outside influence of greater Asia on Japan’s Buddhist traditions. My experience with Buddhist art is largely confined to Japan, and I lack the resources to independently verify the spellings and lore from outside this island nation. So I apologize in advance for any factual errors that I may have introduced when talking about non-Japanese Buddhist traditions.

Onmarkproductions.com is not associated with any educational institution, private corporation, governmental agency, or religious group. I am a single individual, working at my own pace, limited by my own inadequacies. No one is looking over my shoulder, so I must accept full responsibility for any and all inaccuracies at this site. If you discover any, please contact me directly.



Buddhist-Artwork.com, our sister site & eStore, launched in July 2006. It sells quality hand-carved wood Buddha statues & Bodhisattva statues, especially those carved for the Japanese market. Aimed at art lovers, Buddhist practitioners, and laity alike, the estore is not associated with any educational institution, private corporation, governmental agency, or religious group.





Site Author Mark Schumacher at Fengxian Temple, China (World Heritage Site)

See Photo Tour of the Longmen Caves Here (September 2008)



Fengxian Temple 奉先寺, Ancestor Worshipping Temple. Carving began in 672, completed circa 672-675 AD

Central Image = Vairocana Buddha (Jp. = Dainichi Nyorai), Seated atop lotus; 17 meters in height; limestone.

Commissioned by Empress Wu Zetian, and reportedly made to resemble her facial features.





Site author at Hiezan's Golden Rock 金大巌 (abode of two of Japan's oldest & most powerful kami).

May 2012. Since there was no one but me on the mountain path this day, I took this photo using my

camera's auto-shoot feature -- I had to balance the camera atop a rock to get the right angle.

The rock deities of the mountain welcomed me. I have always loved stones..........





Site author undergoing purification ritual at Mt. Inunaki 犬鳴山, a Shugendō site. June 2011.





Big Buddha of Kamakura -- Amida Nyorai -- along with site author Mark Schumacher. March 2013.

The giant bronze statue of Amida, cast in 1252, is roughly 11.3 meters in height (without pedestal).





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