Artwork Page for Manjusuri and Sea Turtle

Details / Information for Manjusuri and Sea Turtle

Manjusuri and Sea Turtle

1989

Oda Mayumi 小田 まゆみ

(Japanese, b. 1941)
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Culture
Japan, Heisei period (1989–2019)
Medium
Diptych of color screenprints
Measurements
Each: 97.5 x 65.5 cm (38 3/8 x 25 13/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of the Artist 1994.77
Copyright
© Oda Mayumi
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print

Description

The Japanese term for substituting an unexpected figure for a conventional one is mitate (見立), or “stand-in.” Oda Mayumi applies the device, popular in ukiyo-e prints of the Edo period (1615–1868), to Monju (Manjushri in Sanskrit), a bodhisattva—a being among those considered enlightened in Buddhism—who symbolizes wisdom. One form of this bodhisattva depicts him as a child with his hair in knots. Oda’s Monju is instead a woman with her hair in a similar style, who also holds a nyoi (如意), a staff used by Buddhist clergy when delivering formal lectures.
A diptych of color screenprints on gray paper depicts an underwater scene across two vertical panels. On the left, a nude diver with a red mask and one flipper descends toward pink coral. In the right panel, a large sea turtle with a yellow patterned shell swims among blue wavy lines. Along the bottom, spiky sea urchins and a small crab rest on stylized gray rock formations against a surface speckled with white and blue.

Manjusuri and Sea Turtle

1989

Oda Mayumi

(Japanese, b. 1941)
Japan, Heisei period (1989–2019)

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