print
- Museum number
- 1983,0702,0.8
- Title
-
Object: Fudo Myo-O (Acala)
-
Series: Kegon-pu 華厳譜 (The Avatamsaka Sutra)
- Description
-
Woodblock print. Buddhist deity Fudo Myo-o holding sword and rope among flames.
- Production date
- 1937
- Dimensions
-
Height: 53 centimetres
-
Width: 72 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Smith et al 1990
Munakata lost most of his stock of prints and his woodblocks in an air-raid on Tokyo in 1945. The prints made before that period are therefore rare. This almost gleeful version of Fudo among flames (see no. 22) is from a series of twenty-four prints on the subject of the Buddhist 'Kegon-sutra', very imaginatively interpreted. One complete set was given by Munakata to the potter Bernard Leach, who was a colleague of the artist in the folk crafts ('mingei') movement, and thus survived in this country, though five of the sheets had been dispersed before they reached the British Museum. The set is one of his masterpieces in the black and white style, which was inspired partly by Japanese folk Buddhist imagery. The sense of turbulent movement and of a restless surface, which are among Munakata's most obvious characteristics, are very evident in this print.
FURTHER READING
Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art, 'Shiko Munakata', Tokyo, 1985.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2017 Jul - Dec, London, BM, Japanese Galleries, 'Japan from prehistory to the present'
- Associated titles
-
Associated Title: Avatamsaka Sutra (Flower-garland Sutra)
-
Associated Title: Kegon kyo (Avatamsaka Sutra)
- Acquisition date
- 1983
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1983,0702,0.8
