On view
South Asian Art
Bodhisattva Jizō (Jizō Bosatsu 地藏菩薩; Skt. Ksitigarbha),,
10th century
Artist unidentified
Japanese
Heian period, 794–1185
y1961-4
Bodhisattvas are Buddhist deities who, through a series of good lives, have sufficiently advanced on the path to enlightenment to achieve entrance into nirvana and buddhahood. However, out of compassion for humanity’s suffering, they have remained on earth to help others realize nirvana. Jizō, one of the most popular bodhisattvas of Japanese Buddhism, is the
guide and savior of the dead, believed to be capable of saving those in hell. This figure portrays Jizō in his most familiar guise: a shaven-head monk clad in a monk’s robe (kesa). The statue is carved from a single block of wood, the method commonly used by Japanese sculptors during the ninth and tenth centuries, with the left hand, the only separate part, mortised to the main body. The lotus pedestal is a modern restoration.
guide and savior of the dead, believed to be capable of saving those in hell. This figure portrays Jizō in his most familiar guise: a shaven-head monk clad in a monk’s robe (kesa). The statue is carved from a single block of wood, the method commonly used by Japanese sculptors during the ninth and tenth centuries, with the left hand, the only separate part, mortised to the main body. The lotus pedestal is a modern restoration.
More About This Object
Information
Title
Bodhisattva Jizō (Jizō Bosatsu 地藏菩薩; Skt. Ksitigarbha),
Dates
10th century
Maker
Medium
Wood with traces of pigment
Dimensions
with base: h. 107.0 cm., w. 10.0 cm. (42 1/8 x 3 15/16 in.)
without base approximately h. 98.0 cm., w. 31.1 cm., d. 21.5 cm. (38 9/16 x 12 1/4 x 8 7/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of the Friends of the Museum and of J. Lionberger Davis, Class of 1900
Object Number
y1961-4
Place Made
Asia, Japan
Description
Wood, with traces of pigments. Standing, frontal figure on lotus base; right arm hanging at side, left arm bend at elbow to support overfold of drapery. Floor-length cloak hanging over shoulders and drawn across lower body to left arm; folds indicated in simple, schematic style. Long ear-lobes.
Culture
Period
Subject
Kofukuji Temple, Nara, Japan; J. Lionberger Davis, Class of 1900 (1895–1968), by 1961; given to the Princeton University Art Museum, 1961.
- "Recent acquisitions", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 21, no. 1 (1962): p. 25-27, p. 26
- "Gifts by J. Lionberger Davis, Class of 1900, to the Art Museum", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 33, no. 2 (1974): p. 24-30., p. 30
- Allen Rosenbaum and Francis F. Jones, Selections from The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1986), p. 121 (illus.)
