Inter-area/Border Crossing

Organized Panel Session

Tradition, Transmission, and Transformation: East Asian Buddhist Perspectives

This panel examines the various patterns of trans-East Asian Buddhist exchanges in the medieval period. An archetypal approach to the study of East Asian Buddhist art revolves around the notion of an artistic relay: India was regarded as the source of inspiration for China, and China in turn influenced artistic production in the Korean peninsula and Japan. While this narrative form holds great truth, it has the implicit baggage of assuming that art in the host country is only derivative and obscures a deep understanding of the complexity of transnational exchanges.

This panel aims to go beyond the conventional query of tracing origins and mapping exchanges to investigate the agency of the “receivers” with four case studies. Dongshan ZHANG studies a group of 6^th century calligraphic sculptures and discusses how the inventive fusion of the sculptural practice with the indigenous calligraphic tradition was prompted by the diminishing availability of sacred space in China. WU Hong zooms into an eccentric stylistic feature of the earliest Japanese Buddhist statues and discusses how artistic forms could be necessitated by the nature of knowledge available to the craftsmen, and thus shaped by the state/mode of communication. Sakiko TAKAHASHI highlights the recipient’s conscious choice in cultural appropriation through analyzing how Japanese Acalanātha image-making evolved from the tension between a strong local tradition and the newly arrived Chinese forms. Lastly, SHI Ruoyu focuses on Shu Brocade with Lianzhuwen to demonstrate the multi-directional nature of cultural exchanges and the constant evolution of forms and ideas along the path.

Organizer(s)

• HW

  Hong Wu

  University of Vienna, Austria

Chair(s)

• DW

  Dorothy C. Wong

  University of Virginia

Paper Presenter(s)

• DZ

  Dongshan Zhang

  University of Chicago
• HW

  Hong Wu

  University of Vienna, Austria
• ST

  Sakiko Takahashi

  Aichi Gakuin University, Japan
• RS

  Ruoyu Shi

  Shanghai Museum, China

Discussant(s)

• DW

  Dorothy C. Wong

  University of Virginia

Papers:

• 9:00 AM - 10:45 AM

  Consecrating the Landscape: Sixth-Century Chinese Buddhist Calligraphic Sculptures
• 9:00 AM - 10:45 AM

  Medium and Metamorphosis: Reconsidering the Artistic Production of the Tori-Style Statues
• 9:00 AM - 10:45 AM

  A Study on the Peculiar Development of the Acalanātha’s Hairstyle in Japan
• 9:00 AM - 10:45 AM

  Western Regions’ Elements on Shu Brocade: A Study of the Drapery Design of a Standing Buddha Statue Dated to 537