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Japan ca. 1930 cotton and pigment 38" x 49", 99 cm x 124.5 cm |
Detail: front An elaborately stamped, hand sewn cotton jacket showing an oversized, centrally placed image of Kannon Bosatsu also known as the Lord of Compassion, the Goddess of Mercy, and in Sanskrit, Avalokiteshvara. Kannon Bosatsu is a bodhisattva who is represented as both man and woman, and is called upon to intervene with those in distress in the earthly realm. This coat was worn by a Buddhist pilgrim who endured the 88 temple pilgrimage on Japan's Shikoku Island, the pilgrimage being one of Japan's most notable. Legend holds that the eighty-eight temple pilgrimage was completed by Kukai (774-835 BCE) the founder of Japan's Shingon sect of Buddhism, however this fact is likely apocryphal. Still, this arduous pilgrimage--over 1200 km long on foot taking upward of 60 days to complete--has endured for centuries. Pilgrims who are able to reach each of the designated temples will have credited much spiritual merit. The individual cinnabar stamps, of which there are hundreds on both the front and back of this coat, are received at each temple; this coat shows physical signs of the long pilgrimage both in terms of the blizzard of temple seals as well as the slight staining and light soiling to the white cotton. It is quite unusual and rare to find such elaborate and large-scale black stamps on coats of this kind. Detail: close-up |
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