Skip to main content
Advanced Search
overall
Jizo Bosatsu (Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva)

Jizo Bosatsu (Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva)

Original Language Title地蔵菩薩立像
CultureJapanese
Date9th-10th century C.E.
MediumWood
DimensionsOverall: 39 inches (99.06 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number31-141/2
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • S21
Collections
Exhibition History

Friends of Far Eastern Art, 2nd Exhibition of Japanese Art, The Art Gallery, Mills College, CA, March 26-May 3, 1936, no. 35.

Waning Moon, Rising Sun, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, October 6-November 22, 1959, no.8.

Gallery Label
Jizō (“Womb of the Earth”) is one of Japan’s most popular bodhisattvas, or enlightened beings who remain in this world to help others attain enlightenment. Jizō is represented here as a youthful monk with a shaven head. He holds a monk’s staff and a wish-granting jewel, which symbolize his power to protect expectant mothers, children, warriors, travelers, and those who suffer in hell. Typical of early Japanese sculptures, this Jizō is carved from a single block of wood. The outstretched hands and toes are later replacements.
Provenance

S. Moritz, Nara, Japan, by July 5, 1931 [1];

Purchased from S. Moritz, through Langdon Warner (1881-1955), by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1931.

NOTES:

[1] "Kansas City - Itemized Purchases in China and Japan, 1932," no. B-26, Harvard Pusey Library, Langdon Warner Personal Archive, box 15, folder 28, copy in Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.

Published References

Mills College, Friends of Far Eastern Art, 2nd Exhibition of Japanese Art, exh. cat. (Oakland: 1936): pl. 13 (repro.).  

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 2, Art of the Orient, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973): 99 (repro.).

Zenzō Shimizu, “Amerika, kanada ni aru nihon chōkoku 1,” Bukkyō geijutsu/ Ars Buddhica, no. 126, (Tokyo: 1979): 86, fig. 74 (repro.).

Zaigai nihon no shihō, vol. 8, Chōkoku, (Tokyo: Mainichi Shinbun, 1980), pl. 33, 129 (repro.). 

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 354 (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 378.

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.