Japanese mandalas
Subtitle: representations of sacred geography
By: Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis.
Publisher: University of Hawai'i Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Honolulu
Language: eng
Number of pages: 227
Subjects: Mandala (Buddhism); Buddhist art and symbolism -- Japan
Description: The first broad study of Japanese mandalas to appear in a Western language, this volume interprets mandalas as sanctified realms where identification between the human and sacred occurs. The author investigates eighth- to seventeenth-century paintings from three traditions: Esoteric Buddhism, Pure Land Buddhism, and the kami-worshipping (Shinto) tradition.

Explaining why certain fundamental Japanese mandalas look the way they do and how certain visual forms came to embody the sacred, ten Grotenhuis presents works that show a complex mixture of Indian Buddhist elements, pre-Buddhist Chinese elements, Chinese Buddhist elements, and indigenous Japanese elements.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 207-214) and index.