Sacred Art & Iconography
Jizo, Bodhisattva of the Earth Store, the Burke Jizo
Wood statue, Kaikei, Japan, circa 1202, Metropolitan Museum of Art 2015.300.250a, b
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A statue of the bodhisattva Jizo (Kshitigarbha) carved circa 1202 by Kaikei of the Kei school, one of the most celebrated sculptors of Kamakura-period Japan, in lacquered Japanese cypress with color, gold, cut-gold patterning and inlaid crystal eyes, known in scholarship as the Burke Jizo. The figure holds a khakkhara pilgrim's staff in the right hand and a wish-fulfilling jewel in the left, standard attributes of Jizo as protector of travelers, children and beings suffering in the hell realms. Originally housed at Kofuku-ji temple in Nara, the statue was de-accessioned in 1906 amid the financial pressures Japanese Buddhist temples faced after the Meiji Restoration, entered the collection of Jackson and Mary Griggs Burke in 1970, and passed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with the whole Burke Collection on Mary Griggs Burke's death in 2012, held today under accession 2015.300.250a, b.
Facts
Origins
Attributed ToKaikei, a sculptor of the Kei school active in Kamakura-period Japan and one of its most celebrated masters. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Nara, Cities This source names Nara directly: "Originally housed at Kofuku-ji temple in Nara, the statue was de-accessioned in 1906 amid the financial pressures Japanese Buddhist temples faced after the Meiji Restoration, entered the collection..."
Belongs to Tradition
Depicts
The statue's sole subject, named directly in the museum's own title and confirmed by the corroborating Wikipedia and Wikidata records for the same accessioned object.
The same statue already shown as the historical bodhisattva's sole subject also depicts him as an object of devotion, since the two entries name the same figure under two different aspects, the historical account and the worshipped deity.
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