The Fury of Monk Raigō
Kobayashi Kiyochika Japanese
Not on view
Kobayashi Kiyochika’s painting captures the drama of a semihistorical incident associated with a resentful Buddhist monk at Miidera, a temple at the foot of Mount Hiei northeast of Kyoto. Monk Raigō (1002–1084) flew into a rage during a goma-e, an esoteric Buddhist fire ritual related to worship of the deity Fudō Myōō. Furious that an emperor had broken his promise—to allow ordination ceremonies at Raigō’s temple after the monk performed rituals for the safe birth of a royal heir—Raigō starved himself to death and was reborn as a horde of rats. Here, he bites and rips sacred texts and hurls them into the fire as Fudō Myōō seems to arise from the flames.
On view for rotations 3 and 4.
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