The Heart Sutra

1999

Not on view

The artist Tawara Yūsaku has inscribed the Heart Sutra (Hannya shingyō), one of the most revered and most copied of all Buddhist scriptures, in gold characters on paper with block-printed red lines. Instead of inscribing the characters in little pagodas or separated by miniature images of Buddhas, as might have been done in ancient times, the sacred text is copied atop alternating cloud-like shapes rendered in black and grey sumi ink. These repetitive but energetic ink markings are characteristic of the artist’s compositions which often comprise just a single character ichi 一, meaning the number “one,” or variations of this irreducibly simple grapheme. In his aesthetic philosophy, derived from Buddhist thought, Tawara viewed the world as animated by a type of vibrational energy, comprised of wavelike forms he called hadō 波動. The artist believed that ink brushstrokes could capture that intense energy at the root of all existence.

Artwork Details

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

俵有作筆仏説摩訶般若波羅蜜多心経」
Title: The Heart Sutra
Artist: Tawara Yūsaku (Japanese, 1932–2004)
Date: 1999
Culture: Japan
Medium: Hanging scroll; ink and gold on paper
Dimensions: Image: 17 x 16 1/4 in. (43.2 x 41.3 cm)
Overall with mounting; 53 9/16 x 22 1/16 in. (136 x 56 cm)
Overall with knobs: 53 9/16 x 24 3/16 in. (136 x 61.5 cm)
Classification: Calligraphy
Credit Line: Gift of The Friedman-Kien and Toyonaga Foundation, 2016
Object Number: 2016.803
Curatorial Department: Asian Art

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