Tile with the Lotus Sutra
Earthenware
Tile with the Lotus Sutra
JAPAN; Heian period
Measuring 22.9 cm high, 18.9 cm wide, and 1.8 cm thick, this earthenware tile is inscribed with a sutra on both sides. Such sutra tiles were buried during the late Heian period at a time when the decline of Buddhism was thought to be approaching. The aim was to preserve the sutras for the eventual arrival of Maitreya.
The sutra tile has vertical lines forming ten columns, each of which contains 17 characters. The tile is inscribed with the “Chapter on the Merit of Rejoicing” from the Lotus Sutra. The origin of the tile is unknown, but it is believed to have been one of the sutra tiles dated to 1114 and excavated from Iimori Hill in Fukuoka.
For more details, go to the Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Artifacts, page 337.
Cite this article:
Hsingyun, et al. "Tile with the Lotus Sutra." Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Artifacts , vol. 18, 2016, pp. 337.
Hsingyun, Youheng, Youji, Stefanie Pokorski, Mankuang, and Wen Fan. 2016. "Tile with the Lotus Sutra" In Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Artifacts , 18:337.
Hsingyun, Youheng, Youji, Pokorski, S., Mankuang, & Fan, W.. (2016). Tile with the Lotus Sutra. In Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Artifacts (Vol. 18, pp. 337).
@misc{Hsingyun2016,
author = Hsingyun and Youheng and Youji and Pokorski, Stefanie and Mankuang and Fan, Wen,
booktitle = {Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Artifacts },
pages = 337,
title = {{Tile with the Lotus Sutra}},
volume = 18,
year = {2016}}
author = Hsingyun and Youheng and Youji and Pokorski, Stefanie and Mankuang and Fan, Wen,
booktitle = {Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Artifacts },
pages = 337,
title = {{Tile with the Lotus Sutra}},
volume = 18,
year = {2016}}