Three Votive Implements: Incense Burner, Candlestick, and Vase

Three Votive Implements: Incense Burner, Candlestick, and Vase

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This set of votive implements comprises a decorative convention for the tokonoma alcove and is derived from the ancient Indian practice of offering gifts to a deity. The use of this arrangement in Japan can be traced to the Kamakura period (1185–1333), when it was standard practice in Zen temples to place offerings before an image of the Buddha. With the spread of religious architecture into secular contexts in the Muromachi period (1392–1573), the implements became part of the formal decoration of the tokonoma alcove.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Three Votive Implements: Incense Burner, Candlestick, and VaseThree Votive Implements: Incense Burner, Candlestick, and VaseThree Votive Implements: Incense Burner, Candlestick, and VaseThree Votive Implements: Incense Burner, Candlestick, and VaseThree Votive Implements: Incense Burner, Candlestick, and Vase

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.