A Lay Nun from the Kannon Sutra
- Date:
- 1938
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Edition:
- Self-printed
From the Kannon Sutra (the twenty-fifth chapter of the Lotus Sutra, dedicated to the compassionate bodhisattva Kannon), this 1938 print depicts a lay nun (ubasoku — though this may refer to a lay practitioner more generally) as one of the many forms Kannon takes to bring salvation to suffering beings. Munakata's rendering of Buddhist lay figures maintained the same direct, energetic carving that characterized his depictions of deities and bodhisattvas: the figure's spiritual presence communicated through the rawness of the mark rather than its refinement. The Kannon Sutra's roster of transformative appearances gave Munakata an extraordinary range of human and divine figures to engage.
1960
Woodblock print
Shôwa period, 1926-1989
Woodblock print
1939-68
Woodblock print
1939 (printed 1955)
Woodblock print
伏見稲荷
Woodblock print
c. 1832/38
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
Uji Byodoin no ichibu
1921
Color woodblock print; oban
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
A Lay Nun from the Kannon Sutra was created by Shiko Munakata (棟方志功) in 1938.
A Lay Nun from the Kannon Sutra depicts temples & shrines and religious.