Sutras

Religious texts 

3) Sutras--religious texts--are traditionally written in a Classical Chinese (or kanbun). They could be read aloud in something resembling Chinese, or "translated" into a special style of Japanese. The Detroit Institute of Arts owns a twelfth-century sutra from Japan! Please click on the Anoku Sutra to look at this breathtaking example. We also have sutras (and a sutra container) in our museum, too. When you look at these texts, think about the material again. The way text and image are arranged. If you had to supply two adjectives to describe these sutras, what would they be? Why?

An excerpt from the Lotus Sutra (Japanese: Myōhō Renge Kyō), this sutra uses gold pigment on indigo dyed paper.
Japanese
Sutra Fragment, Calligraphy in Block Script
gold and silver ink on indigo-dyed paper
12 5/16 in. x 6 1/8 in. ( 31.2 cm x 15.5 cm )
Gift of Ellen and Richard Laing
Japanese
Sutra Scroll Container with Cover
stoneware with gray (?) glaze
11 1/4 in. x 5 3/4 in. x 5 3/4 in. ( 28.58 cm x 14.61 cm x 14.61 cm )
Museum purchase made possible by the Margaret Watson Parker Art Collection Fund

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Seal Script
<p>Chinese origins</p>

Bronze
<p>Writing as Decoration</p>

Sutras
<p>Religious texts&nbsp;</p>

Classical Japanese vs. Classical Chinese
<p>medium <i>and </i>message</p>

Art and Information
<p>Camels and Poems</p>

Classical Women Writers Anew
<p>Playing with text and image</p>

Poems and Paintings
<p>One last look at text and image in a different m...

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August 24, 2020 6:16 p.m.

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