Customer Reviews

Living Images: Japanese Buddhist Icons in Context (Asian Religions and Cultures)

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

 

 

I've been waiting a long time for a book like this. Back when I lived in Japan I regularly visited temples, and was especially fascinated with the many statues and paintings of Buddhist deities there. And while many of them had incredible artistic value purely from an aesthetic angle, it was also clear that these weren't merely art objects but something a lot more. What exactly was hard to determine. Any books I found in English or Japanese only discussed them from the art historical angle. "Living Images" here is different. It discusses their real religious significance; their role in ritual, their function in religious practice, how they were conceived of, what they are doing there besides providing interior decor.

In the introduction, Robert Sharf discusses the reasons why art historians overlook the religious dimension of these Buddhist icons and why Buddhologists and scholars of Japanese Religion tend to ignore them entirely. Then he takes on the aggressive Christian missionary rhetoric of "idolatry" and outlines some of the Buddhist doctrinal formulations relevant to Buddhist iconography. After this of course come the four essays of which the book chiefly consists. "Portraits of Shinran in Medieval Pure Land Buddhism" by James Dobbins, "'My Reflection Should Be Your Keepsake': Myoe's Vision of the Kasuga Deity" by Karen Brock, "Icons and Relics in Eison's Religious Activities" by Paul Groner--which focuses especially on icons of Shakamuni, Aizen Myoo, and Monju Bosatsu at Saidaiji Temple, and "Visualization and Mandala in Shingon Buddhism" by Robert Sharf again. These articles are all uniformly well-written and scholarly.

And it IS a book about icons after all, so thank goodness it is profusely illustrated with eight color plates and 47 black & white pictures.