Artwork
見返り地蔵菩薩図|The Bodhisattva Jizō “Looking Back”
見返り地蔵菩薩図|The Bodhisattva Jizō “Looking Back” is an ink painting. It dates from 1364 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The work depicts the Bodhisattva Jizō, a central figure in Japanese Buddhism, rendered in the specific iconographic guise of "Looking Back.
The work depicts the Bodhisattva Jizō, a central figure in Japanese Buddhism, rendered in the specific iconographic guise of "Looking Back." Created in 1364, the painting utilizes ink, color, gold paint, and cut gold on silk to present the deity within a religious context. The title itself defines the primary symbolic action: the figure is captured in a moment of turning or glancing backward.
While the specific narrative reason for this gesture is not detailed in the provided records, the composition emphasizes the Bodhisattva's presence and engagement. As a religious painting from Japan, the image represents the spiritual significance of Jizō within the Buddhist tradition, utilizing sumptuous materials like gold to denote the sacred nature of the subject.
Technique & Style
Executed in 1364, this religious hanging scroll depicts the Bodhisattva Jizō using ink and mineral colors applied to a silk support. The artist employed gold paint, known as kindei, alongside cut gold techniques to embellish the composition, creating a luminous effect characteristic of Japanese Buddhist painting from this period. As a work attributed to an anonymous painter, the piece demonstrates formal qualities aligned with fourteenth-century devotional imagery, utilizing the vertical format of the hanging scroll to present the figure.
The combination of opaque pigments and metallic elements on the woven silk ground highlights the sacred nature of the subject matter through rich textural contrasts.
History & Provenance
The work titled 見返り地蔵菩薩図|The Bodhisattva Jizō "Looking Back" was produced in 1364 in Japan by an anonymous painter as a hanging scroll using ink, color, gold, and cut-gold on silk. It belongs to the religious genre of Buddhist painting and depicts the Bodhisattva Jizō turning his head backward. The piece entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which lists it as part of the museum's holdings.
Its creation reflects fourteenth-century Japanese devotional practice, and the work has remained in the museum's custody since its acquisition.
Overview
This hanging scroll, titled The Bodhisattva Jizō “Looking Back” (見返り地蔵菩薩図), is rendered with ink, color, gold paint (kindei), and cut gold on silk. It depicts the Bodhisattva Jizō, a revered figure, in a distinctive pose. The figure is shown turning his head to gaze over his shoulder, his bare feet resting gently upon a cloud, conveying a sense of serene contemplation or movement.
Artist & collection
- 地蔵菩薩来迎図|Welcoming Descent of the Bodhisattva Jizō
地蔵来迎図|Welcoming Descent of Jizō
地蔵菩薩像|Jizō Bosatsu
阿弥陀聖衆来迎図 |Welcoming Descent of Amida and Bodhisattvas
英一蝶筆 地蔵菩薩図|Jizō Bosatsu
The Bodhisattva Kannon, from the triptych Approach of the Amida Trinity
五髻文殊菩薩像|The Bodhisattva Monju (Manjushri) with Five Topknots
