painting;
shikishi;
manga
- Museum number
- 2011,3029.1
- Description
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Painting, shikishi. The esoteric Buddhist deity Fudo Myoo seated on a rock and assisting the manga character Goho Doji (Young Dharma-defender) to ascend the rock. Ink and colour on board.
- Production date
- 1 June 2002
- Dimensions
-
Height: 27.20 centimetres
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Width: 24.20 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
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Hanawa is a cult manga artist, notorious for his macabre and grotesque style. This relatively benign work relates to a manga that he went on to publish from 2004, titled 'Goho Doji' (Young Dharma-defender). The main character, Goho Doji, is the combination of a boy and girl who become a single being. The term 'goho' corresponds to the Sanskrit term 'dharmapaala' (Dharma-defender). Another character in the manga is Fujōbutsurei Dōjo, the ‘young girl who cannot become a Buddha’ who exists in a limbo state neither dead nor alive.
There are many representations of the esoteric Buddhist deity Fudō in the BM collections – notably the late Heian period (12th C) wooden sculpture (1960,0220.1). Fudō has taken many forms in different periods in Japan: there is even an ukiyo-e print by Shunshō which shows the Kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjūrō V in the role of Fudō (this lineage of actors was thought to be ‘living manifestations’ of the deity). It is fascinating that the deity has been used in a popular contemporary manga.
(T. Clark, 8/2011)
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This painting relates to another by Hanawa titled ‘Manifestation of the Great Deity Hanawa, no. 14’ (Hanawa Daimyōjin go-shintai 花輪大明神ご神体 no14) (BM reg. no. 2011,3028.1).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2012 Feb – Jun, BM Japanese Galleries, ‘Japan from Prehistory to the Present’
- Acquisition date
- 2011
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 2011,3029.1
- Additional IDs
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Asia painting number: Jap.Ptg.Add.1301 (Japanese Painting Additional Number)
