Bishamonten

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

These printed images of Bishamonten (Sanskrit: Vaishravana), the divine guardian of the north, were found inside a sculpture of the deity in the Jūrin'in subtemple of Nakagawadera, a temple northeast of Nara. To make the print, a block bearing a single image of Bishamonten was stamped a total of one thousand times. According to inscriptions on sheets of the same print in other collections, the images were made as an offering to the deity during a ritual service. They were placed inside the statue on the seventh day of the third month in 1162.

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