Lit by the shining sun, the Buddhist gods smile down upon the viewer. The Vairocana, the eleven-faced Avalokiteshvar, the bodhisattva, and the Gigeiten were all Kinutani’s childhood mentors who taught him the wisdom of life. The belief that all things are transient and mortal (“Mujokan”), the philosophy that conflicting things such as “good and bad” or “war and peace” are fundamentally the same idea (“Funihomon”), and the teaching that compares Buddha to “a skilled painter” (“Kegon”): these ideas continue to be the inspiration of Kinutani’s creativity.
Commentary
Lit by the shining sun, the Buddhist gods smile down upon the viewer. The Vairocana, the eleven-faced Avalokiteshvar, the bodhisattva, and the Gigeiten were all Kinutani’s childhood mentors who taught him the wisdom of life. The belief that all things are transient and mortal (“Mujokan”), the philosophy that conflicting things such as “good and bad” or “war and peace” are fundamentally the same idea (“Funihomon”), and the teaching that compares Buddha to “a skilled painter” (“Kegon”): these ideas continue to be the inspiration of Kinutani’s creativity.