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Todaiji Temple Lotus Hall: Mirror

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Todaiji Temple Lotus Hall: Mirror

JAPAN, Nara; Nara period

Created during the 8th century, this is one of two mirrors in the Lotus Hall of Todaiji Temple. They hang on the canopies of Brahma and Sakya. Since the Nara period, decorative mirrors were inlaid on the ceiling, architrave, canopy, or mandorla.
The round mirror has three squares within it. The central square has a large boss in the form of a mythical creature surrounded by a ripple pattern. The second square contains eight floral wreaths. The outer square has 12 mythical creatures, and there are four apsaras in the space between the outer square and the rim. It is possible that it was cast from a mold of a Tang dynasty mirror.

For more details, go to the Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Artifacts, page 342.

Cite this article:

Hsingyun, et al. "Todaiji Temple Lotus Hall: Mirror." Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Artifacts , vol. 18, 2016, pp. 342.
Hsingyun, Youheng, Youji, Stefanie Pokorski, Mankuang, and Wen Fan. 2016. "Todaiji Temple Lotus Hall: Mirror" In Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Artifacts , 18:342.
Hsingyun, Youheng, Youji, Pokorski, S., Mankuang, & Fan, W.. (2016). Todaiji Temple Lotus Hall: Mirror. In Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Artifacts (Vol. 18, pp. 342).
@misc{Hsingyun2016,
author = Hsingyun and Youheng and Youji and Pokorski, Stefanie and Mankuang and Fan, Wen,
booktitle = {Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Artifacts },
pages = 342,
title = {{Todaiji Temple Lotus Hall: Mirror}},
volume = 18,
year = {2016}}


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