Asuka+(Kudara+Kannon)+--+Color+Woodblock+Print+by+Saito+Kiyoshi

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 * Asuka (Kudara Kannon) -- Color Woodblock Print by Saito Kiyoshi **

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__Identification:__ //Asuka (Kudara Kannon)// Saito Kiyoshi (1907-1997) Mid 20th Century, Showa Period Japan Collection of The University of Michigan Museum of Art Gift of the Artist Accession Number: 1959/2.14

__Introduction:__ This entry describes the woodblock print titled //Asuka (Kudara Kannon)// by Japanese artist Saito Kiyoshi and elaborates on the statue upon which the print was based, the Kudara Kannon - a Tori style wood carving of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara in the Horyuji Temple of Nara Prefecture, Japan.

__Descriptive Analysis:__ The work is a colored ink woodblock print on rectangular paper (85.5 x 55.4 cm). The artist employs rich black, mahogany, rust, as well as pale grey hues. The composition is geometric yet expressive. The natural wood grain texture of the block is utilized and the paper is exposed in the pale grey area creating an illusion of entering light. The vertical and horizontal black lines imply a structure surrounding the long and slender figure, which is black with areas of exposed white paper. The trapezoidal rust shape at the bottom gives the composition a sense of volume and dimension and the mahogany area provides an illusion of enclosure.

__Formal and Contextual Analysis:__ The work was created as part of a series of studies of famous Buddhist sculptures in Nara, Japan (UMMA). The statue interpreted here is the Kudara Kannon (7th century).

image of re-created statue at The British Museum

The statue is composed of gilt camphor wood with a metalwork crown and stands 210.9 cm. The figure is rendered in the elongated style with waterfall garment draping. The elongated style, popularized in the 5th century in China traveled through Korea to Japan and became the prevailing style of buddhist sculpture in the Nara Period. In Japan the style exemplified by the Kudara Kannon is termed the Tori style - after the Korean artist of the famous Shaka Triad, also housed at the Horyuji Temple in Nara (Stanley-Baker 2000, p. 37).

Avalokitesvara, a bodhisattva associated with compassion, also known as Guan-yin (Chinese), Kannon (Japanese) and Padmapani (an alternate Indian name), has long possessed a large cult of followers in Asia (Frederic 1995, p. 153). The left hand of the statue is not fully extended but seems to be entering the varada mudra, symbolic of bestowing gifts. The right hand holds a vase or vessel of divine nectar, which is symbolic of Avalokitesvara as the one who relieves spiritual thirst (Frederic 1995, p. 155). Avalokitesvara is usually identified by the lotus blossom, it is present here upturned as the base on which the figure stands.

The medium of Kiyoshi's work, woodblock print, became an important one in Japan in the Edo Period as the demand for illustrated texts increased (Stanley-Baker 2000, p. 188).--but Kiyoshi lived much later. The portrayal of the Kudara Kannon in the print is simplified and stylized. The large halo as well as the water vessel are omitted and the hand is fully extended in the traditional varada mudra position. With the vase omitted the right hand's position is in that of the abhaya mudra, a gesture of reassurance. The lotus shape of the base of The Kudara Kannon is barely implied in Kiyoshi's work. Japanese art is characterized by a respect for materials and a tendency toward asymmetry, Kiyoshi's work exhibits both through the utilization of the natural wood grain as well as the asymmetrical balance of the composition.

__Personal Interpretation:__ Meditation is a foundational buddhist practice. The repetition and precision involved in wood carving make it an especially meditative artistic medium. As such it is fitting that wood carving is the medium employed in creating Kiyoshi's print as well as the sculpture on which the print is based. Japanese woodblock prints were an important pre-modern multicultural influence on western artists; many impressionist painters, famously Claude Monet, admired Japanese prints and kept large collections of them. I find a connection between Kiyoshi's piece and the work of a thoroughly modern artist, Piet Mondrian. Mondrian's non-representational Neo-Plasticist works attempt to create a stillness and sense of suspension through structure (Little 2004, p. 117). Without the figure and the trapezoidal shape that gives Kiyoshi's work a sense of depth I find a remarkably similar feeling of stillness is present in Kiyoshi's composition-- despite the difference in the character of the lines, Mondrian's are strictly geometrically precise where as Kiyoshi's seem more expressive. The stillness Kiyoshi creates allows the viewer to experience how it may feel to view the Kudara Kannon in the sacred atmosphere of the Yumedono (Dream Hall) at the Horyuji Temple in Nara.

__References:__ Little, Stephen. //...Isms// (Understanding Art). New York, NY: Universe, 2004

Brock, Karen L. "Horyuji and Todaiji." Encyclopedia of Buddhism, edited by Robert J. Buswell Jr. Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. 337. Gale Virtual Reference Library. 4 April 2011

Cauderlier, A. "Monet's Collection of Japanese Woodblock's" 1 April 2011  (2006)

"Tori Style." Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica. 6 April 2011  (2001)

Schumacher, Mark. "Asuka Period Photo Tour." 31 March 2011  (2010)

"Buddhist Nara". University of Michigan Museum of Art. UMMA Image Collection Database. 20 March 2011 

Frederic, Louis. //Buddhism.// Paris: Flammarion, 1995

Craven, Roy C. //Indian Art// (World of Art Series). London: Thames and Hudson, 1997

Stanley-Baker, Joan. //Japanese Art// (World of Art Series). London: Thames and Hudson, 2000