Iconographic drawing of seated Manjushri (Japanese: Monju)

This iconographic drawing depicts Monju, the bodhisattva of wisdom, who is the left attendant of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni. Unlike the more common representations of Monju—mounted on a lion and holding a raised sword in his right hand—this Monju is seated in the lotus position on a simple circular dais. He holds a scroll of the Buddha’s doctrine in his right hand and a lotus stem in his left. His hair has been arranged into five knots (gokei) which stand for the “five types of knowledge.” These knots also symbolize the five-character mantra that expresses Monju’s power and wisdom.

Monju is drawn here in fluid, thin ink lines. Color instructions are inscribed on both sides of the figure. A character at the side of a lotus bud reads “blue”; on Monju’s right, four characters read “the holy body in white”; characters near the upper and lower parts of the garment read “blue-green” and “red” respectively. Such iconographic illustrations probably provided artists’ workshops with models for the preparation of formal paintings.

Provenance: Kozanji Temple, Kyoto; sold to Miura Kanju in the Meiji period (1868-1912); donated to the Asian Art Museum by Harry Packard in 1991.