Iconographic Drawings of the Five Kings of Wisdom (Myōō-bu shoson)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Five Great Kings of Wisdom (Godai Myōō) are ferocious-looking deities who ward off evil in order to protect the Buddha’s law. The opening section of this scroll shows various depictions of Fudō Myōō, the Immovable King of Wisdom. The surrounding mandorla of flames represents the extinguishing of human passions. Accompanying the illustrations are schematic drawings of the deity’s attributes: a vajra “thunderbolt” sword (a symbol for cutting through ignorance), an eight-spoked dharmachakra disk, and a two-pronged vajra with rope. The Zuzō shō (or Jikkanshō) is an encyclopedia of Esoteric Buddhist iconography in ten scrolls, with detailed descriptions of the attributes of the various Myōō. This scroll is stylistically close to the oldest surviving version of the Zuzō shō, housed at Daigoji Temple in Kyoto from approximately 1193.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art