Paris, 30 August 2011
The National Museum of Asian Arts, called the Musée Guimet, is currently hosting “Ofuda, engraved imagery from Japanese Buddhist temples” and leads us to the discovery of the Japanese Buddhist pantheon, on view until 12 September.
An ofuda most often appears in the form of a sheet of printed paper on wood panels and is both the bearer of private devotion and a talisman. Many ofudas were assembled by Professor Bernard Frank (1927-1996), an erudite who spent most of his life studying them. A selection of the 160 finest ofuda from the Bernard Franck collection are presented out of the 1000 pieces he owned.
The collection, the most comprehensive in the world, is the result of the professor’s long work. He has searched for them in more than 2,000 sacred places. It illustrates the Japanese Buddhist pantheon by the representation of twenty-four characters, representing the six categories of gods (Buddha, bodhisattva, kings of Science, deities, Japanese kami, eminent monks and patriarchs).
The museum was not chosen at random, as it is where Franck reconstituted the collection of Buddhist statues assembled by Émile Guimet in 1876. The sculptures are highlighted by the Ofuda, giving a new vision of Japanese Buddhist iconography.