Asian Art and History

Lecture

Asian Art and History Buddhist Bells and Dragons:
Under and Over Water, In and Out of Japan

Sherry Fowler, Ph.D., Professor of Japanese Art History, University of Kansas

Nearly every Buddhist temple in Japan has a large bronze temple bell, created by superb casters and sponsored by devout donors. Casual visitors often walk by without noticing, yet since the seventh century, temple bells have functioned as precious treasures of material and emotional exchange. Stories and gorgeous paintings and prints will be shared to illuminate how bells were so desirable that they became targets of both otherworldly and worldly theft. As it was believed that a Dragon King, who hoarded bells and lived in an undersea palace, could overturn ships to steal bells, they were kept covered during transport. By the 13th century, bells were seized as battle plunder, pirate loot or wartime booty, and remarkably, some were returned.

This presentation is part of the Asian Art and History series.

Image: 19th century print by Kuniyoshi that belongs to the British Museum.

Sherry Fowler

Sherry Fowler

Sherry Fowler is Professor of Japanese Art History at the University of Kansas. She has a PhD in Japanese art history from UCLA. Her publications include the books Accounts and Images of Six Kannon in Japan and Murōji: Rearranging Art and History at a Japanese Buddhist Temple. Sherry’s research interests include pre-modern Japanese sculpture, pilgrimage prints, foreign interactions with Japanese art, issues of collecting, and ritual. She is now finishing a book on the relationship between dragons, water, and Buddhist temple bells in Japan, which was supported by an Ishibashi Foundation / Japan Foundation Fellowship and an American Council of Learned Society / Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Research Fellowship in Buddhist Studies.