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This photo library and dictionary is a labor of love. After moving to Kamakura in 1993, I became intrigued by the many deities and faces of Japanese Buddhism and Shintoism. There are dozens of temples and shrines near my home, many dating from the 8th to 13th centuries, many open to the public. There are now 1,000+ photos in this library, ranging from the treasures of Kamakura to those of Nara, Kyoto, and elsewhere in Japan. Any mistakes or omissions are my responsibility. Please contact me if you discover any. 

PREFACE
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 for the past 12 years, 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 bibliography), mind you, but yet I'm unsatisfied. The best of the lot, in my mind, is a book entitled Sculpture of the Kamakura Period, by Hisashi Mori, from the Heibonsha Survey of Japanese Art (1st Edition 1974). As for online resources, the best database in my mind is the Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System, compiled by the late Dr. Mary Neighbour Parent.

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.

Thus I began, back in 1995, with my first digital camera, along with the help of my scanner. I've been digging around ever since. This site is my tribute to Japanese Buddhist sculpture and, to a lesser degree, Shinto art. Finally, let me express my gratitude and thanks to all the fine people, temples and shrines, museums, web sites, books, magazines, and other resources that have contributed to this ongoing project.   

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

• 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 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 do not profess to be a scholar of Japanese Buddhism, nor am I "fluent" in Japanese and Chinese. I 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.
   

CAVEATS, APOLOGIES, WHAT THIS SITE "IS NOT"
This site is about JAPANESE traditions in Buddhist sculpture and iconography. It is not a "Pan-Asian Iconographic Guide."  First, I am not qualified to discuss Buddhist artistic traditions in India, Tibet, and Mainland Asia. That topic is expansive, and would require the collaborative efforts of scholars and art lovers from many countries. So please bear this in mind as you read these pages. Although I often give the Hindu and Chinese and Tibetan spellings, and try to share Buddhist lore from the broader Asian tradition, this is just my way of "keeping notes" and learning myself about the outside influence of greater Asia on Japan's Buddhist traditions. My experience with Buddhist art is largely confined to Japan, and I lack the resources to independently verify the spellings and lore from outside this island nation. So I apologize in advance for any factual errors that I may have introduced when talking about non-Japanese Buddhist traditions.  

• Onmarkproductions.com is not associated with any educational institution, private corporation, governmental agency, or religious group. I am a single individual, working at my own pace, limited by my own inadequacies. No one is looking over my shoulder, so I must accept full responsibility for any and all inaccuracies at this site. If you discover any, please contact me directly.  

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