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Japanese Buddhism, Photo Dictionary of Japan's Shinto and Buddhist DivinitiesRETURN TO TOP PAGE of Japanese Buddhist Statuary A to Z Photo Library & Dictionary of Gods, Goddesses, Shinto Kami, Creatures, and DemonsCopyright and Usage PoliciesJump to Our Online Store Selling Handcrafted Statues
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QUICK START
Home: What's New
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DEITY GUIDES
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A TO Z INDEX
3 Element Stele
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5 (Number Five)
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28 Legions
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33 Kannon
About the Author
Agyo
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Amida Nyorai
Apsaras
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Asuka Era Art Tour
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Tengu
Tennin & Tennyo
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Videos Buddhism
Water Basin
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Wheel of Life
Yakushi Nyorai
Yasha (Yaksha)
Zao Gongen
Zen (Daruma)
Zen Art Tour
Zodiac Calendar
Zochoten

 

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BIBLIOGRAPHY - MAIN CATEGORIES
Click any link below to jump to list of resources.

LEARN MORE
To learn more about any particular deity, click the deity’s link (in left-column), scroll to the bottom of that page, and find the “Learn More” section for targeted links & resources.

Zen Art by Qiao Seng
Zen Art by Qiao Seng

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arrow DICTIONARIES & GLOSSARIES

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arrow  MUSEUMS & GALLERIES
Below museum sites were invaluable to me. See this site’s individual A-to-Z pages for specific credits.

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arrow TEMPLES, SHRINES, PILGRIMAGES, FESTIVALS

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arrow PHOTO GALLERIES OF TEMPLES, SHRINES, STATUES

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arrow SCHOOLS, SECTS, & RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS

      Schools & Sects

      Religious Organizations

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arrow ACADEMIC FORUMS & SCHOLARLY SOCIETIES

  • PMJS: Premodern Japanese Studies. PMJS is an interdisciplinary forum with over 600 members worldwide who do research on earlier periods of Japanese art, culture, history, religion, language and literature. PMJS’s main function is to facilitate serious scholarly discussion on topics related to premodern Japan.
     
  • Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture. Located in Nagoya, Japan. Its symposia, colloquia, research projects, and numerous publications -- including the semi-annual Japanese Journal of Religious Studies -- promote dialogue among scholars, religions, philosophies, and cultures East & West. 
     
  • H-Buddism. The Buddhist Scholars Information Network serves as a medium for the exchange of information regarding academic resources, new research projects, scholarly publications, university job listings, and so forth, for specialists in Buddhist Studies.
     
  • Society for the Study of Japanese Religions. SSJR is an international association of approximately 200 scholars committed to the academic study of the religions of Japan and is affiliated with the Association of Asian Studies.
     
  • NCC Center for Study of Japanese Religions. Based in Kyoto, NCC is a research arm of the National Christian Council in Japan (NCC-J).
     
  • Religion Source - Journalist's Shortcut to 5,000 Scholars. A service of the American Academy of Religion, the world's largest association of religion scholars.
     
  • Japan Art History Forum. Membership is open to anyone with a serious scholarly interest in the study of Japanese art history, including faculty and graduate students in art history and related fields, museum professionals, independent scholars, and serious collectors.   
     

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arrow OTHER ART TOPICS

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arrow OTHER BUDDHIST WEB RESOURCES

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arrow JAPANESE CULTURE, TRAVEL, & FOOD

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arrow E-STORES

Buddha Statues available for online purchase -- our siste site !!!

Buddhist-Artwork.com
Sister Site of the A-to-Z Photo Dictionary (this site)
Online Sales of Hand-carved Wood Buddha Statues


Disclaimer Concerning Below Estores
Onmarkproductions.com is not responsible in any way
for your dealings with the online merchants listed below.

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arrow SITES DEVOTED TO JAPAN’S TRADITIONAL ARTS
                    Below sites designed by Mark Schumacher

E-Yakimono.net and Japanesepottery.com - The World of Japanese Ceramics
Japanese Pottery Online Gallery and Store, Hosted by Robert Yellin and the Robert Yellin Yakimono Gallery

Tea Ceramics by Potter Richard Milgrim - Focus on Japanese Pottery for the Tea Ceremony

The Japan Folk Crafts Musuem in Tokyo

Home of sake pro John Gauntner. Unparalleled knowledge center on Japanese sake.Premium Japanese Sake Knowledge Center & Online Store

Yufuku Gallery of Contemporary Japanese Ceramics and Applied Arts North American Association of Karate Masters

Purchase Quality Green Tea from Japan's Premier Tea-growing RegionJapanese Green Tea OnlineBaird Beer - Handcrafted Beer from Japan

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ABOUT SITE AUTHOR

  • Name: Mark Schumacher
  • Born 1959 (USA)
  • B.A. Chinese Studies 1982 (Hamline University, Minnesota)
  • M.A. Japanese Studies 1990 (Johns Hopkins, SAIS, Wash. DC)
  • Resident of Japan since 1992
  • Please click here for my resume

ABOUT MY SOURCES

  • Please see Bibliography (this page) for main sources
  • Few primary resources (i.e., Sanskrit, Pali, or Chinese documents) were used to construct these pages. Most information herein comes from temple visits, temple brochures, various dictionaries and guidebooks, museum publications (especially from Kyoto and Nara), and hundreds of web resources. I rely mainly on English and Japanese resources, but try to include Sanskrit, Chinese, and other spellings whenever possible for deity names, sutra titles, et. al. Credits for outside resources are listed above or below the text/image. Credits may also be viewed by holding the mouse momentarily over any specific image. About 50% of the photos at this site are from outside sources, the rest are by me.
  • I am by no means “fluent” in Japanese and Chinese, and must struggle often with obscure terms and historical references. But when comparing several translations of the same passage or name, I sometimes modify the passage/name to suit my own interpretation. Most of the translations at this site are not mine, however, and such translations are always identified in the credit.

TECHNICAL MATTERS

  • Romanization.
    In most cases, this site uses the Hepburn system of romanization. Nonetheless, there is no fully satisfactory way of romanizing Japanese (or, for that matter, Chinese, Tibetan, Korean, or Sanskrit). To provide as much precision as possible, the Japanese ideograms (kanji) are also presented, showing both the standard Japanese spelling and its hiragana equivalent.
  • Japanese Names.
    Family names are shown before first names. The Japanese do not have middle names.
  • Era Names and Dates.
    Standard classification and dating scheme found in both Japan and the West. 
  • Deity Classification.
    Follows the same scheme as that of the Japanese and their Buddhist scholars.

REASONS FOR MAKING THIS PHOTO DICTIONARY
My reasons for creating this photo dictionary are quite simple. First and foremost, this project is a labor of love. Second, it is a tribute to Kamakura, my home since 1993, and home to dozens of temples from the Kamakura Era (1185-1333), which still house and display wondrous life-size wooden statues from the 8th century onward. Third, this project was prompted by a dissatisfaction with existing literature on Japanese Buddhist art -- especially sculpture. I still visit book stores and libraries hunting for “the perfect” English handbook on Japanese Buddhist sculpture. But I must admit, I have yet to find anything that satisfies me. Mountains of publications are out there, but in my mind they suffer from too much preaching, promoting, inconsistency, inaccuracy, and just plain “unreadability.” There are some excellent resources (see our BOOKS pages), but yet I’m unsatisfied.

Fourth, and most regrettably, the online sites of the great repositories of Japanese Buddhist sculpture -- the national museums in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nara -- don’t offer any systematic A-to-Z access to their impressive art collections. There is no comprehensive online catalog. Even so, the situation is much improved compared to only ten years ago, thanks largely to advances in web technology. And to be fair, this is not just a problem with museums in Japan. At the online sites of major museums in America and Europe, it is likewise difficult to find what you want, even when you know the piece is in their collection.

So, armed with my first digital camera (back in 1995), I decided to create my own handbook on Japanese Buddhism (with the help of my scanner as well). This ongoing project is the result. 

Alas -- I’ve bitten off more than I can chew. The more I study the details of Japanese Buddhism, the more it eludes me by revealing still more details to study. As I try to understand and categorize, the topic keeps expanding. Maybe one day I’ll finally have the “perfect” handbook, but for that to happen, I’ll need to keep digging deeper into the vast terrain of Buddhist art, faith, mythology, and superstition. Perhaps my goal shall always elude me. Perhaps I shall never have my “perfect” handbook. But along the way, l hope we can both -- you the reader and me the digger -- find joy and insight. 

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Buddhist-Artwork.com (our sister estore selling Buddhist statuary)
is a member of the above Web Ring. The Ring lists various online merchants.
Most sell goods from Tibet and India, while Buddhist-Artwork
features Buddha statues from Japan.

Buddha Statues available for online purchase -- our siste site !!!

Buddhist-Artwork.com
Sister Site of the A-to-Z Photo Dictionary (this site)
Online Sales of Hand-carved Wood Buddha Statues

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Copyright 1995 - 2013. Mark Schumacher. Email Mark.
All stories and photos, unless specified otherwise, by Schumacher.
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Please do not copy these pages or photos into Wikipedia or elsewhere without proper citation !