Sacred Names of Shinto Deities and the "Oracles of the Three Shrines"

Sacred Names of Shinto Deities and the "Oracles of the Three Shrines"

Mokujiki Shōnin

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The term mingei, generally translated as “folk art,” is often applied to the works of Mokujiki Shōnin, an itinerant priest and amateur artist who sculpted rough-hewn Buddhist deities and gods of good fortune. However, he was also a calligrapher, and his brush writing exhibits the same energy and heartfelt piety that appear in his sculptural works. Here, he inscribed the names of Shinto kami regarded as local manifestations of Buddhas and bodhisattvas, followed by the “Oracles of the Three Shrines” (Sansha takusen). The scroll is an example of calligraphic works that became devotional objects for people unable to travel to the great Shinto shrines of Ise, in Mie Prefecture; Iwashimizu Hachimangū, in Kyoto; and Kasuga, in Nara.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sacred Names of Shinto Deities and the "Oracles of the Three Shrines"Sacred Names of Shinto Deities and the "Oracles of the Three Shrines"Sacred Names of Shinto Deities and the "Oracles of the Three Shrines"Sacred Names of Shinto Deities and the "Oracles of the Three Shrines"Sacred Names of Shinto Deities and the "Oracles of the Three Shrines"

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.