Tamamushi Shrine
法隆寺でもっとも見たかったもののひとつが、大宝蔵院に安置されてある玉虫厨子である。聖徳太子の時代に作られたもので、当時の建築物を模した厨子の様式は金堂のそれよりも古いとも言われている。 外側の面には、仏教の世界観を描いた須弥山世界図や、釈迦の前世の物語を異時同図という表現方法をつかって描かれた捨身飼虎図や施身聞偈図などの絵が施されていて、聖徳太子の持っていた仏教感が詰まっているように思える。さらに興味深いことに、これらの絵は漆だけでなく部分的に油絵の具で描かれているらしい。だがこの玉虫厨子以降油絵の具は日本美術から洋画が入ってくるまで姿を消す。自分でも板に油彩を使ってきてその相性の良さを感じているだけに、この技術が定着しなかったのが不思議である。
One of the many things I wanted to see at Horyuji was the Tamamushi Portable shrine. It was made in Aska period (7th century) and some scholars say it could be older than the oldest building of the temple based upon observations on structural detail of the shrine. The outer walls are decollated with paintings. The subjects of the paintings are diagram of the Buddhist’s cosmology and narratives of Buddha’s previous lives. Those narratives depict Buddha’s successive actions within a unified background. You could almost feel the prince Shotoku’s view on Buddhism from those images. Another interesting thing about these paintings is that they are partially painted with oil along with lacquer. And the oil paint had disappeared from Japanese art history after these works until the modern days. Knowing how well oil works on wood, I wonder why oil painting didn’t stay in Japan.
Detail from an ongoing watercolor
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One of the many things I wanted to see at Horyuji was the Tamamushi Portable shrine. It was made in Aska period (7th century) and some scholars say it could be older than the oldest building of the temple based upon observations on structural detail of the shrine. The outer walls are decollated with paintings. The subjects of the paintings are diagram of the Buddhist’s cosmology and narratives of Buddha’s previous lives. Those narratives depict Buddha’s successive actions within a unified background. You could almost feel the prince Shotoku’s view on Buddhism from those images. Another interesting thing about these paintings is that they are partially painted with oil along with lacquer. And the oil paint had disappeared from Japanese art history after these works until the modern days. Knowing how well oil works on wood, I wonder why oil painting didn’t stay in Japan.
Detail from an ongoing watercolor
