'Fudo Myoo's Twenty-Eight Forms,' (No. 1 from the portfolio)

 

Kuntaro Hayakawa

 

1975  

woodcut 

18 x 12 1/4" image size 

pencil signed in lower center-right; red artist seal, lower right 

not stated 

penciled dating in Japanese, lower left margin (Showa Era, April 1975); text carved into block throughout 

 

fibrous cream laid 

published 

artist 

25417 

$250.00 

From "Twenty-Eight Depictions of Fudo Myoo," a portfolio of large woodcuts showing the Japanese Buddhist deity Fudo Myoo, also known as "Acala." Acala began as an esoteric deity in the broader Mahayana Buddhist philosophy. He was adopted into Japanese culture and given a more formal standing in Japanese Buddhism in the 9th century by the monk Kukai. Acala is the Immovable God, the principle deity of the Five Wisdom Gods. They are depicted as wrathful beings, though in Japanese Buddhism their aggressive nature is intended to banish negative forces within the self, acting as a facet of Buddha's universal compassion for all.

This portfolio shows Acala/Fudo Myoo in the form he developed in the Heian and Kamakura eras: one eye looking upward, the other down ("heaven-and-earth eyes"), with one fang pointing up and the others pointing down as well. These are intended to represent Acala's duality. His head is ringed in a halo of flames that represents the fire-breathing Garuda bird, and he holds a sword of wisdom and a negative force-binding noose.

Kuntaro Hayakawa (also known as Kaorutaro Hayakawa) likely created these images in the 1970s and appears to be greatly influenced by printmaker Shiro Munakata.