Man's Under-kimono (Nagajuban) with Skeletons
Not on view
The upper portion of this man’s under-kimono, a type of undergarment usually seen only by intimate company, shows two skeletons playing a board game, a scene framed by a delicately painted spider web. On a lower section of the back panel a skull is depicted among grasses with a wood plaque that bears the inscription “Namu Amida Butsu.” In Pure Land Buddhism, the recitation of those words signifies the speaker’s complete reliance on the compassion of Amida, the Buddha of Infinite Light; the act of chanting (nenbutsu 念佛 “mindfulness of the Buddha”) this phrase is believed to allow rebirth in the Pure Land.
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