Customer Reviews

Buddhism: Flammarion Iconographic Guides

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A long time scholar of Japanese Buddhist art, Frederic's work on Japan is somewhat useful for Japanese Buddhism. Relative to Japan, the author mostly summarizes and translates from the Ki Tosa no Hidenobu's Butsu Zuzo-I (originally published in 1783) as an e-hon) which was one of the world's first major studies of Buddhist iconography. However, the rest Frederic's work on the Buddhist iconography of the rest of Asia, was essentially beyond his skills. The book is either is minimal or, on occasion, totally inadequate. If the work had been presented as simply an iconography of Japanese Buddhism, and not expanded into a pan-Asian "Iconographic guide," one might have recommended it with some enthusiasm. Unfortunately, someone must have made the decision that a new general iconography of Buddhism was in order (an idea with which I agree). To have expanded FredericŐs work into such an attempt has proven to be unfortunate in the extreme. The mistakes of the book have already begun showing up in my studentŐs work and the fundamental misconceptions contained in the book are quite unfortunate. I am afraid that the book is not to be recommended for any serious work by any one except scholars who are already equipped to evaluate the accuracy of statements made by Frederic.

I'm surprised at the low ratings for this book. It is invaluable as a book to consult. It isn't a "read from cover to cover" book . It's like an encylopaedia to consult whenever one comes across an obscure reference to a rarely mentioned manifestation of some Buddha. And as near as I've been able to determine this is the only iconography of Buddhas left in print. There was an excellent one of actualy statues from places like the Forbidden City, but that was back in the '60's.

Frederic's book has been marketed as a general guide to Buddhist iconography, but don't be confused: it is actually an illustrated encyclopedia of the gods and goddesses of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism. As such, it succeeds admirably, and belongs on the shelf of everyone who is interested in the subject, including professionals and students of Buddhism and Asian art, as well as enthusiastic temple-goers who are living or visiting in Japan. The book answered many of my questions, and it had lots of information that I was looking for, but couldn't find elsewhere.

There are a couple of slips in the English paperback edition; for example, the statue of Tentoki in Kofuku-ji (p. 277) is mis-captioned as a "dragon" (he's really, of course, a demon). Overall, though, this is a great book to have if you've ever wondered who all those multi-headed, multi-armed, deities are!