This print depicts Ashura-O, the King of the Asura realm, as part of Munakata's Kegon-fu series based on the Avatamsaka Sutra. Asura figures in Buddhist iconography are typically rendered with multiple arms and a fierce countenance, and Munakata's characteristically deep, gouged cutting would amplify that ferocity through jagged contours and bold negative space. The waterfall subject listed alongside the figure may evoke the cosmic cascade imagery central to Kegon cosmology, where the dharma is likened to a great flow. Munakata often carved these religious series in a single sustained session, treating the physical act of cutting as a devotional practice. The raw grain of the wood—left visible rather than smoothed—adds textural urgency to the figure's supernatural energy.
1960
Woodblock print
Shôwa period, 1926-1989
Woodblock print
1939-68
Woodblock print
1939 (printed 1955)
Woodblock print
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Ashura-O from Kegon fu was created by Shiko Munakata (棟方志功).
Ashura-O from Kegon fu depicts figures, waterfalls, and religious.
