Three Votive Implements: Incense Burner, Candlestick, and Vase
Not on view
This set of votive implements comprises a decorative convention for the tokonoma alcove and is derived from the ancient Indian practice of offering gifts to a deity. The use of this arrangement in Japan can be traced to the Kamakura period (1185–1333), when it was standard practice in Zen temples to place offerings before an image of the Buddha. With the spread of religious architecture into secular contexts in the Muromachi period (1392–1573), the implements became part of the formal decoration of the tokonoma alcove.
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