In this beautifully illustrated book, eminent art historian John
Rosenfield explores the life and art of the Japanese Buddhist monk
Hozan Tankai (1629-1716). Through a close examination of
sculptures, paintings, ritual implements, and primary documents,
the book demonstrates how the Shingon prelate's artistic activities
were central to his important place in the world of
late-seventeenth-century Japanese Buddhism. At the same time, the
book shows the richness of early modern Japanese Buddhist art,
which has often been neglected and undervalued.
Tankai was firmly committed to the spiritual disciplines of
mountain Buddhism--seclusion, severe asceticism, meditation, and
ritual. But in the 1680s, after being appointed head of a small,
run-down temple on the slopes of Mount Ikoma, near Nara, he
revealed that he was also a gifted artist and administrator. He
embarked on an ambitious campaign of constructing temple halls and
commissioning icons, and the Ikoma temple, soon renamed H?zanji,
became a vibrant center of popular Buddhism, as it remains today.
He was a remarkably productive artist, and by the end of his life
more than 150 works were associated with him.
A major reconsideration of a key artistic and religious figure,
"Preserving the Dharma" brings much-needed attention to an
overlooked period of Japanese Buddhist art.
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