Monju Bosatsu (Bodhisattva Manjusri) (Bodhisattva of Wisdom)

Monju Bosatsu (Bodhisattva Manjusri, Bodhisattva of Wisdom) in this 1937 print is rendered at the moment of Munakata's most intensive Buddhist engagement. The sword that Monju carries — cutting through ignorance as the carving knife cuts through wood — creates an obvious, perhaps intentional parallel between the bodhisattva's function and Munakata's own creative act. His carving knife and Monju's sword of wisdom share the same quality of decisive, penetrating action, and this print may be understood as a self-identification of the artist with the deity of wisdom whose work is the liberation of the mind.