Many-Jeweled Stupa Reliquary (Tahōtō shari yōki)
Unknown Artist
early to mid-1300s
Medium
wood and metal
Dimensions
68 × 34.4 cm
Classification
Sculpture
Department
Japanese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
John L. Severance Fund
Accession Number
1982.8
About this artwork
Earthen mounds that marked the sites of interred relics in ancient India are called stupas. As Buddhism traveled through East Asia, the mounds took on the form of towers called “pagodas” by Westerners. This miniature tower, painted with Buddhist deities on the interiors of the doors on each side, likely once held items considered to be sacred relics. The deities on the doors have been tentatively identified as the four bodhisattvas of the sacred text the Lotus Sutra, and two Guardian Kings known...