Ippodo Gallery
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Home
  • Artists
  • Artworks
  • Exhibitions
  • Art fairs
  • Viewing room
  • Video
  • Journal
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Store
  • EN
  • JA
Cart
0 items $
Checkout

Item added to cart

View cart & checkout
Continue shopping
Menu
  • EN
  • JA
Artworks

Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Ken Matsubara, 暘 (Yo) - Yang(六曲屏風), 1996

Ken Matsubara Japanese, b. 1948

暘 (Yo) - Yang(六曲屏風), 1996
Painting
H 152 x W328 cm, H59.84 x W129.13 in
A24002
Enquire
%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22artist%22%3EKen%20Matsubara%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22title_and_year%22%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_title%22%3E%E6%9A%98%20%28Yo%29%20-%20Yang%EF%BC%88%E5%85%AD%E6%9B%B2%E5%B1%8F%E9%A2%A8%EF%BC%89%3C/span%3E%2C%20%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_year%22%3E1996%3C/span%3E%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22medium%22%3EPainting%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22dimensions%22%3EH%20152%20x%20W328%20cm%2C%20H59.84%20x%20W129.13%20in%3C/div%3E
Matsubara depicts light emanating from the sun’s golden halo, reaching down the and across the entire screen. The combination of the sun is part of his Kūkai Series. The life of the great Buddhist monk Kūkai (774–835), who, as a young man, retreated to an oceanside cave where he watched the cycles of the sun and the moon as he strove toward spiritual awakening. Kūkai frequently recited the Akasagarbha sutra, a text evoked through the image of Venus, which represents the Bodhisattva Akasagarbha, known in Japanese as Kokūzō. The set was initially commissioned for Jingoji, the Shingon temple in Kyoto, where Kukai resided after returning from China, where he studied esoteric Buddhism. Before he began painting, Matsubara wrote Kūkai’s poem Hizō-hōyaku (Precious Key to the Secret Treasury), an explanation of the tenets of Shingon Buddhism, across the panels. He then coated the panels with an earthy-red bengala oxide to give the black ink and gold of the sky and stars a sense of texture. The crashing waves were painted with an undulating layer of clay-resin paint highlighted with thick lines of mica resin.
Previous
|
Next
37 
of  42
Privacy Policy
Manage cookies
Copyright © 2023 Ippodo Gallery
Site by Artlogic
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Facebook, opens in a new tab.
Vimeo, opens in a new tab.
Join the mailing list
Send an email

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences
Close

Sign up for our newsletters

Interests *

Signup

* denotes required fields

We will process the personal data you have supplied to communicate with you in accordance with our Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in our emails.