Niu Myōjin

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The female Shinto deity of Mount Kōya, Niu Myōjin, is believed to have given Kūkai (Kōbō Daishi, 774–835) permission to build his monastery for Esoteric Buddhist training at Mount Kōya in 816. Here she is shown seated on a tatami mat wearing elaborately layered robes and with the long, flowing hair of a court lady. In the disk at the top of the painting, the deity is represented again by the seed syllable (a sacred Sanskrit character) referring to her original Buddhist form (honji) as Dainichi Nyorai (Sanskrit: Mahāvairocana), the central Buddha of the Esoteric Buddhist cosmos. A painting of Niu Myōjin such as this is usually paired with one of Kariba Myōjin, the male deity of Mount Kōya.

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