Bronze Sutra Cylinder
- Date
-
制作年 AD12
- Title
- ドウセイキョウヅツ
- Materials, techniques and shape
- 絹本墨書
- Collections
- Century Akao Collection
- Depository
- Keio Museum Commons Campus Mita
The exhibited sutra (Buddhist scripture; records of Buddha’s words) cylinder has an umbrella-like double-layer lid and is cast in bronze, a tin and copper alloy. At the top center of the lid is a knob consisting of three rings and a houshu (or houju), a spherical or pear-shaped object sacred to Buddhism. The body of the cylinder is made by stacking two round components. The base is cast separate from the cylinder’s body into a pedestal. Several lines are engraved at the top and bottom of the cylinder components and at the top part of the base.This sutra cylinder’s design is likened to a Buddhist stupa, which was a revered object of worship, as it was inside the stupa that Buddha’s holy remains were preserved. Sometimes worshippers preserved the sutras they dedicated to a temple in the temple building’s podium, called a kidan. Likewise, sutra cylinders were used to preserve Buddhist sutras until the return of the Miroku Bosatsu (Sanscrit: Maitreya Bodhisattva) for saving mankind. Here, one can see the expression of a common prayer offered by faithful followers. The stacked cylinder body with a decorative ring knob is a unique design of the sutra cylinders excavated from sutra mounds (kyozuka) in northern Kyushu. Some other contemporary sutra cylinders bear inscriptions of the years in which they were created, namely 1125 and 1126, so this exhibit was also likely made in the 12th century during the Heian Period. The raised brim of the lid and the rich roundness of the base together express the elegance of the ancient Heian court.
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- Title (EN)
- Bronze Sutra Cylinder
Provenance
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