Page 409 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

faithful copy of earlier, lost, kyobako. A running
arabesque of lotus and tendrils ornaments the
sides of the box. On the lid a central, formal lotus
design, seen from above, is flanked by two lotuses
in side view, and then two more fanciful and sim-
plified lotus motifs. The technique is excellent,
but the motifs are rendered with less relief than is
found in the thirteenth-century flower trays from
Jinsho-ji. The lotus refers, of course, to the Lotus
Sutra that was originally contained within the
luxurious box. S.E.L.

2 55

HOT-WATER KETTLE FOR THE
TEA CEREMONY, SHINNARI TYPE

c. 1500
Japanese, from Ashiya (present-day Fukuoka),
Kyushu
sand-cast iron
5
3
height 17 (6 /4); diameter 24.5 (^ /s)
references: Yamada 1964; Castile 1971
Tokyo National Museum

Like all utensils for the Tea Ceremony (Cha no
yu), the kettle (kama) in which the water was
254 Buddhist contexts) arabesques. This is the earliest boiled was chosen with exhaustive care for its
Of all the
appearance and history.
orthodox
SUTRA CONTAINER (KYOBAKO) such well-preserved container for the Lotus shapes, this one, called shinnari (truth-shaped),
dated to 1555 Sutra. Because it contained a sacred text presented was probably the most used. Ornamenting the
Japanese as an offering to deity, because religious ritual two lug handles are kimen (C: taotie; ogre mask);
ajoure gilt bronze depends for its efficacy on precise adherence to a ogre masks decorating vessel handles descend
l
length 30.6 (12), width 19.1 (j /2), height 10.9 prescribed model, and because the Tendai sect laid from Zhou dynasty China (1045-256 B.C.). About
references: Nara 1979, 155 particular emphasis on rituals and ritual furnish- two-thirds of the way down the body, where the
ings, we can be sure that this sutra container is a kettle is damaged, was originally an encircling
Yoho-ji, Kyoto

According to the inscription on a copper sheet on
the bottom of this sutra box, Lord Narita Naga-
hiro presented Yoho-ji in 1555 with an eight-roll
set of the Lotus Sutra (Hoke-kyo), which was
placed in this gilt bronze container. The sutra is
the principal text for the Tendai sect and also
important for Jodo (Pure Land Buddhism), the cult
of Amida and the Western Paradise, which became
especially popular beginning in the early eleventh
century. It was an act of piety to copy the text, or
to commission a copy, preferably in gold and/or
silver calligraphy on deep blue or purple paper.
Earlier sutra containers exist: one, made to hold
a single roll and dated to the thirteenth century,
is at Mantoku-ji in Aichi Prefecture. Even more
famous prototypes for the ajoure (pierced) tech-
nique in gilt bronze are the flower trays of Jinsho-
ji in Shiga Prefecture; one of these is now in the
Honolulu Academy of Art.
The pierced gilt bronze of the "Nagahiro" kyo-
bako is worked into scrolling designs of lotuses
and hosoge (an imaginary flower peculiar to

408 CIRCA 1492