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Benvenuti in queste pagine dedicate ad arte e letteratura. Amelia Carolina Sparavigna

Monday 4 July 2011

Moon over Japan

Moon over Japan.
White butterfly moon!
The waters wash against the sacred islands
Where steps lead down to the sea,
Where neither death nor birth is permitted,
Where the heavy-lidded Buddhas dream
To the sound of the cuckoo's call,
The whitened mists lie adrift among the
pines
And steal the color from the bright-leaved maples
On the mountains where the deer pasture and the monkeys sleep among the branches.
The white wings of moon-butterflies
Flicker down the streets of the city.
Brushing into darkness the useless wicks of round lanterns in the hands of girls.


This is the initial part of “Sky Lotus,” by Elizabeth J. Coatsworth, published in the July 1919 issue of Asia, “The American Magazine on the Orient,” published by the American Asiatic Association.
http://www.blackcatpoems.com/c/sky_lotus.html

Hokusai manga - fox



Hokusai manga
Museo Arte Orientale, Torino

Four actors



A group of four actors
Tang Dinasty, first half of the 8th century AD
Museo Arte Orientale, Torino

Padmapani


Padmapani
Gandhara, II-III secolo d.C.

Il Bodhisattva Padmapani siede su un alto trono con il piede sinistro posato a terra e la gamba destra piegata a appoggiata sul ginocchio opposto. L’alto seggio su cui Padmapani è seduto ha una spessa base su cui si appoggiano i sandali (infradito!). Il Bodhisattva indossa paridhana e uttariya. Porta un turbante a fascia, grandi orecchini a testa di leone, collane e un cordone con piccoli involucri porta-preghiere, portato di traverso dalla spalla sinistra al fianco destro. Padmapani tiene nella mano sinistra un grosso bocciolo di fiore di loto, mentre l’altra, mancante, era rivolta verso la testa.

Museo Arte Orientale, Torino

Il funzionario militare


Funzionario militare
Dinastia Tang, VIII secolo D.C.
Terracotta rossa, ingobbio bianco, pigmenti e oro
Military official
Tang Dinasty 8th centry A.D.
Red earthenware with white engobe, pigments and gold



Museo Arte Orientale, Torino

Poems








Stampe xilografiche, Giappone, Periodo Edo
Museo Arte Orientale, Torino

Sugawara no Michizane


Sugawara no Michizane che cavalca un bufalo.
Utagawa Sadakage (attivo dal 1818-1844)
Sugawara no Michizane (845-903) venne divinizzato
come dio protettore delle lettere e della calligrafia.
Viene rappresentato spesso sotto fiori di susino a
cavallo di un bufalo, che lo accompagna durante
l'esilio dalla capitale.
Museo Arte Orientale

Hokusai manga - supernatural

The Hokusai Manga (北斎漫画) is a collection of sketches of various subjects by the Japanese artist Hokusai. Subjects of the sketches include landscapes, flora and fauna, everyday life and the supernatural... The Manga comprise literally thousands of images in 15 volumes, the first published in 1814, when the artist was 55. The final three volumes were published posthumously, two of them assembled by their publisher from previously unpublished material. 
more Wiki



Museo Arte Orientale

Kongo Rokishi come Ercole

"Kongōrikishi are an interesting case of the possible transmission of the image of the Greek hero Heracles to East Asia along the Silk Road. Heracles was used in Greco-Buddhist art to represent Vajrapani, the protector of the Buddha, and his representation was then used in China and Japan to depict the protector gods of Buddhist temples. This transmission is part of the wider Greco-Buddhist syncretic phenomenon, where Buddhism interacted with the Hellenistic culture of Central Asia from the 4th century BC to the 4th century AD.*"
According to Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shukongoshin
* "The origin of the image of Vajrapani should be explained. This deity is the protector and guide of the Buddha Sakyamuni. His image was modeled after that of Hercules. (...) The Gandharan Vajrapani was transformed in Central Asia and China and afterwards transmitted to Japan, where it exerted stylistic influences on the wrestler-like statues of the Guardian Deities (Nio)." (Katsumi Tanabe, "Alexander the Great, East-West cultural contacts from Greece to Japan", p23)

Hokusai manga - cat


Un gatto di Hokusai
Museo Arte Orientale - Torino

Kongo Rikishi




Kongo Rikishi stante su base rocciosa
legno di cipresso giapponese dipinto, altezza cm 230,5
Giappone, periodo Kamakura, seconda metà XIII secolo

Imponente statua realizzata con pezzi assemblati (yosegi-zukuri). Rappresenta uno dei due guardiani del tempio e della dottrina buddhista posti in coppia ai lati della porta dei monasteri. Ha la bocca chiusa e contratta per esprimere l’esplosivo hum, il terribile mantra delle divinità furiose.


Museo Arte Orientale, Torino