Section of the Lotus Sutra (Hokkekyō) known as the "Tōdaiji gire" (Todaiji fragment)
Handwritten copies of sutras, or sacred Buddhist scriptures, were essential to promoting the faith. All temples required copies for use in ritual recitation. The text is read from top to bottom, right to left. Since the 1400s, collectors prized the beauty of scribes’ calligraphy. Many sutras were cut up like this fragment and pasted into albums as treasured objects, sometimes to preserve the undamaged parts.
In Japan, sutras are generally written in regular script Chinese characters. This is the most legible of all Chinese calligraphic scripts, equivalent to clear printed lettering in the Roman alphabet.
With John M. Crawford Jr., New York, by July 10, 1975;
His gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1975.With John M. Crawford, Jr. (1913-1988), New York, NY, by July 1975;
His gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, July 1975
