Lotus Sutra, Chapters 20 and 23

Object Details

• Description

  Handscroll with regulated lines of seventeen Chinese characters, written in gold and silver on indigo dyed paper. Frontispiece illustration painted in full color and embellished with gold and silver depicting dancers costumed as a butterfly and a supernatural bird carrying liturgical banners aloft. The text employs a formal style of Chinese characters customarily used for writing sutras.

  With rock crystal jiku. In a blue-red silk wrapper and a wooden storage box.

• Provenance

  ?-1980

  Kurisu Michio, Osaka, Japan, method of acquisition unknown [1]

  From 1980

  Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Kurisu Michio, Osaka, Japan [2]

  Notes:

  [1] See object file for copy of Freer Gallery of Art vault record, no. V25.80ab, indicating that the object, sent by Kurisu Michio, was received at the Freer on March 10, 1980; “D-16” is typed below vault record no. V25.80ab. See also copy of a letter from Thomas Lawton to Kurisu Michio, dated February 20, 1980, indicating that there were three items currently in his collection which the Freer Gallery of Art was interested in examining. Lawton wrote, “During his recent visit to Japan, Dr. Yoshiaki Shimizu of our staff saw several objects in your collection that he would like to have brought to the Freer Gallery of Art for further study.” The third object identified in Lawton’s letter is described as “Two scrolls from the Motochika-kyo (Lotus Sutra transcribed by Motochika).”

  [2] See object file for copy of Michio Kurisu [sic.] invoice to the Freer Gallery of Art, dated to April 7, 1980, and approved by the Secretary of the Smithsonian on May 15, 1980.

  Research updated October 20, 2023

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Words of Wisdom: Buddhist Calligraphy from Japan (April 1, 2023 to February 25, 2024)

  The Power of Words in an Age of Crisis (October 14, 2017 to May 6, 2018)

  Faith and Form: Selected Calligraphy and Painting from the Japanese Religious Traditions (March 20 to July 18, 2004)

  Japanese Art (May 9, 1993 to November 21, 1995)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Michio Kurisu

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment

• Type

  Calligraphy

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1100s

• Name

  Michio, Kurisu

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Heian period (794 - 1185), Art, Animals, Japanese Art, Dance, Birds, Lotus Sutra

• Culture

  Buddhists, Japanese

• Object Type

  Calligraphy (visual works)