immortal wishes:
labor and transcendence
on a Japanese sacred mountain

Ellen Schattschneider

Duke University Press (2003)

 
TEACHING RESOURCES

 PAINTINGS IN AKAKURA MOUNTAIN SHRINE


(See Chapter Two, "Between Worlds: Akakura's Architecture of Potential Transformation," esp. pp. 58-65, 77-83)

I. Images In the Shinden (Inner Sanctuary): 


A votive painting of the Fudo  waterfall.  The shrine foundress kneels  in prayer to the left of the falls.  Across the river above her, Akakura Daigongen  stands on a golden brocaded cloud  in his incarnation as  an old scowling man with wild eyes and long flowing white hair. He holds a crooked wooden staff in his right hand, and his left hand holds a pole with tassels and a white banner displaying a small Buddhist swastika.

 

Detail (Showing Akakura Daigongen as on old man):

Previous image

(Kobo Daishi)


Next image

(Dragon and Moon)

 


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Website developed by Ellen Schattschneider (Brandeis University)