Kumano nachi mandalas: medieval landscape, medieval national identity
Description
A Japanese national identity is generally thought to have originated in the 17th century, with the advent of the Kokugaku movement. I will argue that there is earlier evidence for the existence of a Japanese national identity in the Kumano Nachi mandalas of the Kamakura and Muromachi periods. These mandalas employ the Nachi waterfall as a symbol of the strength and power of the Japanese land, counterbalancing Chinese Buddhist visual motifs. In this paper, I further assert that these mandalas are an early example of an artistic tradition of painting specific landscape features as symbols of a Japanese national identity, and that this tradition continues into the modern period.
Date Created
The date the item was original created (prior to any relationship with the ASU Digital Repositories.)
2017
Agent
- Author (aut): Gossett, Sarah
- Thesis advisor (ths): Brown, Claudia
- Committee member: Codell, Julie
- Committee member: Gabbard, Ralph
- Committee member: Hedberg, William
- Publisher (pbl): Arizona State University