Japanese Buddhist Painting

Buddhism was formerly introduced to the Japanese archipelago in the first half of the sixth century. Although the records concerning this initial introduction do not mention painting, by the latter half of the seventh century, tapestries and murals adorned the interior of Buddhist temples, and miniature shrines with paintings of Buddhist themes were being produced. Narrowly defined, “Buddhist painting” (butsuga仏画) refers to painted images of Buddhist icons and worldviews produced as the focal point of devotional activities. More broadly, however, butsuga could also encompass any paintings in a Buddhist context, including narrative scrolls of Buddhist tales and hagiographies of eminent monks, murals and screens that adorned a monastic architecture, or visual works produced for popular consumption that appropriated familiar Buddhist motifs. Although it was initially an imported religion, Buddhism eventually penetrated the daily lives of people at every stratum of Japanese society, impacting their cultural activities even to the present. For this reason, this article adopts the broadest definition of butsuga in an effort to encompass both two-dimensional devotional images and their popular adaptations. In order to provide a reasonable structure, this article prioritizes English peer-reviewed books and articles of recent years to maximize the utility of this bibliography to scholars and students in English-speaking academia who are at the beginning stage of their research. Most of the works selected include a comprehensive list of further readings that can direct readers to seminal exhibition catalogues, Japanese scholarship, and PhD dissertations. Compared to sculpture, the scholarship on butsuga—particularly in Western languages—has thus far not been as wide-ranging. For instance, there is a cluster of significant studies on butsuga of the medieval period (roughly thirteenth through sixteenth centuries) but still relatively few on the other periods. An exciting development of the 2000s is the increased scholarly attention toward Buddhist art of the early modern period (Edo or Tokugawa period, 1603–1868). The organization of this article follows the strengths (and the holes) in the state of the field of butsuga research. Studies on butsuga often span across multiple historical periods and sectarian divides. For this reason, the headings selected for this list are generally thematic rather than chronological. Seminal works are also produced as part of transdisciplinary edited volumes. This article also includes recent studies on the visual culture for secular consumption that was nevertheless deeply rooted in Buddhist ideas and motifs.