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Bodhisattva mask for Gyōdō

 

Height: 23.000 cm
Width: 20.030 cm

Gift of Lady Francis Oppenheimer

Asia JA 1963.7-22.1

    Bodhisattva mask for Gyōdō

    From Japan
    Kamakura period, 13th century AD

    Gyōdō was a ceremony derived originally from China in the Tang dynasty (AD 618-906). Priests wearing bodhisattva masks paraded outside temples. Bodhisattva masks are particularly associated with the raigō forms of these ceremonies, which enacted the welcome of the dead into Paradise by the Buddha Amida (Sanskrit: Amitabha). This example is made of lacquered, painted and gilded wood. The procession was led by dancers carrying a shishi mask to exorcise the route.

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