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Art From the Great Eastern Temple
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11585 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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9 / 1986 |
1,237 Words |
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Levi Smith
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For more than a thousand years one of the great centers of art production in Japan, the monastic complex called Todai-ji - the Great Eastern Temple - at Nara, Japan, has now lent a selection of its masterpieces for a unique exhibition currently on view at the Art Institute of Chicago. This exhibition, called The Great Eastern Temple: Treasures of Japanese Buddhist Art from Todai-ji, offers the viewer a succinct introduction to the great achievements of Japanese Buddhist art.
Todai-ji was founded in 742 by the Emperor Shomu in an effort to appease the gods during a period of uprisings, plague, and famine. As the center of a national network of provincial temples known as Kokubun-ji, Todai-ji played an important role in the spiritual and political unification of Japan.
Japanese culture was profoundly affected by the importation of Buddhism from mainland China in the sixth century A.D. The native religion of Japan - called Shintoism - stressed purification rituals, the recognition of sacred areas, and respect for the spirit inhabiting each thing, animate or inanimate. The combination of the international culture of Buddhism and the Japanese people's reverence for nature led to the creation in Japan of magnificent works of Buddhist art.
Buddhism was founded in India in the sixth century B.C. by Gautama Siddhartha, who taught that by observing basic principles of conduct, and by meditation, one could escape the endless cycle of incarnation and achieve spiritual enlightenment. Over the centuries, Buddhism spread from India to China and Korea, and finally to the Japanese Islands, absorbing gods and customs from local religions and becoming ever more complex.
The central, and immoveable, image of Todai-ji is the fifty-two-foot-tall seated figure of the Buddha as Vairocana (Lord of the Universe), completed in 752. The largest wooden structure in the world (known as the Daibutsu-den or Hall of the Great Buddha) encloses this cast-bronze sculpture of a cosmic Buddha who encompasses past, present, and future. The monumental sculpture and its enormous enclosure embody the theological ideas of the sect dominant at the time of Todai-ji's construction; Kegon Buddhism. This form of Buddhism fused the concept of a universe populated with an intricate hierarchy of Hindu deities with Gautama Buddha's teaching that every living being is a potential "Enlightened One."
The expense of erecting, gilding, and housing this enormous statue drained the national treasury and contributed directly to the downfall of the government of Shomu's descendants. As an important center and symbol of Buddhism. Todai-ji was an easy target for factions vying for control of Japan. It was virtually destroyed during two civil wars, first in the twelfth century and again in the sixteenth century. Each time, destruction sparked a renaissance of artistic activity.
Because of the successive destructions of the temple complex, objects from the time of the founding of the temple are rare. The screen, which is cast in bronze and portrays a celestial musician, dates from the eighth century. A cymbalist with half-closed eyes and a faint, rapturous smile is about to strike a pair of cymbals. This screen is one of eight panels that make up an octagonal lantern that stands in front of the Hall of the Great Buddha (Daibutsu-den), as a symbol of the Buddhist light that has
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