Resources

The Kano school, established by Kano Masanobu (1434–1530), primarily served the samurai class. Their bold designs of powerful animals and symbolic plants and trees, blending aspects of native Japanese with Chinese styles, were the perfect decoration for screens and sliding doors in the large official audience halls in samurai residences. Learn more.

Learn about Japan’s refined form of floral arrangement, known as ikebana (“to arrange and give life to flowers”).

Learn about Indonesian rod puppets (wayang golek) with puppet master Kathy Foley.

Incense Container with design of plovers, 1500–1600. Japan. Muromachi period (1392–1573). Lacquered wood and sea shell. Gift by transfer from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, B85M14.

In the Snow at Tsukahara on Sado Island (Sashu Tsukahara setchu) from The Illustrated and Abridged Biography of the Founder [Nichiren] (Koso goichidai ryakuzu), by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (Japanese, 1797-1861). Japan. Woodblock print; ink and colors on paper. Gift of the Grabhorn Ukiyo-e Collection, 2005.100.118.

Illustrations of Buddhist texts and ritual formulas (Rashmivimla-vishuddhiprabhasa-dharani-sutra) (Mugujeonggwang Daedarani), 2001, by Dong-uArtist: Myeongcheon. Korea. Handscroll; sutra, gold on paper. Gift of Dong-u seunim, 2002.12.2.

Students will: 1.) Identify the format and elements of a sutra. 2.) Examine why sutras (the teachings of the Buddha) are important historical and religious documents. 3.) Analyze why the writing of sutras is considered an important religious act. 4.) Construct and illustrate an accordion book manuscript based on the sutra format used during the Goryeo dynasty (Korea).

Hailed as one of the most important photographers of our time, New York-based Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto is also an accomplished architect. He approaches his work from many different perspectives, with architecture as one component in designing the settings for his installations. As a photographer of the highest technical ability, with equal acclaim for the conceptual and philosophical aspects of his work, Sugimoto has created works in his “Five Elements” series that are constructed as shrines to a primordial birthplace. Using geometric symbols from thirteenth-century Buddhism, Sugimoto encases a single image from his iconic Seascape series in each glass structure.

Hindu temples are numerous in form, and probably evolved from a variety of sources, including the worship of natural sites, mounds, trees, due to the need for a place to conduct ritual practices and house images of deities. Learn more.

Himeji Castle is among the finest surviving examples of the defensive structures built in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries as samurai strongholds and symbols of power. Learn more.