Bryan Lowe
@bryandaniellowe.bsky.social
Assoc. Prof. of Religion @Princeton. Historian of Japanese religions (esp. 7th-9th c.) & Buddhism. Author of Ritualized Writing (UH Press, 2017). Unapologetic Boston sports fan.
Want this on my tombstone.
November 15, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Want this on my tombstone.
🏹🏹🏹
Slightly late #ManuscriptMonday. Illustrated Tales of Heike, 17th century, Princeton University Library.
dpul.princeton.edu/eastasian/ca...
Slightly late #ManuscriptMonday. Illustrated Tales of Heike, 17th century, Princeton University Library.
dpul.princeton.edu/eastasian/ca...
August 5, 2025 at 6:10 AM
🏹🏹🏹
Slightly late #ManuscriptMonday. Illustrated Tales of Heike, 17th century, Princeton University Library.
dpul.princeton.edu/eastasian/ca...
Slightly late #ManuscriptMonday. Illustrated Tales of Heike, 17th century, Princeton University Library.
dpul.princeton.edu/eastasian/ca...
Fascinating to see Usa today market itself as the birthplace of Shinto-Buddhist syncretism, a very different view from that in Grapard, who describes an obliteration of syncretism in the wake of Meiji ideologues and their reforms.
July 30, 2025 at 7:11 AM
Fascinating to see Usa today market itself as the birthplace of Shinto-Buddhist syncretism, a very different view from that in Grapard, who describes an obliteration of syncretism in the wake of Meiji ideologues and their reforms.
July 28, 2025 at 3:29 AM
This week's #ManuscriptMonday is this cool miniature replica of the illustrated hell scrolls that I bought at the Kyoto National Museum last week (next to an air conditioner remote for scale). You can get your own copy here for less than 6,000 yen! www.kyotobenrido.com/view/item/00...
July 28, 2025 at 1:22 AM
This week's #ManuscriptMonday is this cool miniature replica of the illustrated hell scrolls that I bought at the Kyoto National Museum last week (next to an air conditioner remote for scale). You can get your own copy here for less than 6,000 yen! www.kyotobenrido.com/view/item/00...
Sometimes, when things get tough, you just need a Buddhist statue to come to life and give you a piggyback ride.
Shakadō Engi, 16th c. Currently on display at the Kyoto National Museum and well worth it!
www.kyohaku.go.jp/jp/exhibitio...
Shakadō Engi, 16th c. Currently on display at the Kyoto National Museum and well worth it!
www.kyohaku.go.jp/jp/exhibitio...
July 24, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Sometimes, when things get tough, you just need a Buddhist statue to come to life and give you a piggyback ride.
Shakadō Engi, 16th c. Currently on display at the Kyoto National Museum and well worth it!
www.kyohaku.go.jp/jp/exhibitio...
Shakadō Engi, 16th c. Currently on display at the Kyoto National Museum and well worth it!
www.kyohaku.go.jp/jp/exhibitio...
For Marine Day in Japan, a #ManuscriptMonday of the 13th-century Illustrated Biographies of the Kegon School's Patriarchs 華厳宗祖師絵伝, which tells the story of a young Chinese woman who falls in love with a Korean monk. She throws herself into the sea and becomes a dragon who protects the returning ship
July 21, 2025 at 5:26 AM
For Marine Day in Japan, a #ManuscriptMonday of the 13th-century Illustrated Biographies of the Kegon School's Patriarchs 華厳宗祖師絵伝, which tells the story of a young Chinese woman who falls in love with a Korean monk. She throws herself into the sea and becomes a dragon who protects the returning ship
Just got back from Hokkaidō, which inspired me to look up Ainu manuscripts for #ManuscriptMonday. Here's Stepan Krasheninnikov's 1738 "A Glossary: Latine-Ainu-Chukchi-Koryak-Itelmen," an early record of the Ainu language.
For more on early manuscripts, see: eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/bitst...
For more on early manuscripts, see: eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/bitst...
July 13, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Just got back from Hokkaidō, which inspired me to look up Ainu manuscripts for #ManuscriptMonday. Here's Stepan Krasheninnikov's 1738 "A Glossary: Latine-Ainu-Chukchi-Koryak-Itelmen," an early record of the Ainu language.
For more on early manuscripts, see: eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/bitst...
For more on early manuscripts, see: eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/bitst...
Interesting article in The New Yorker about scents being all the rage in the museum world these days. Shōsōin: The Show gave visitors the chance to smell ~8th-century Ranjatai 蘭奢待, a piece of agarwood, which is probably the most famous incense in the history of Japan and still extant in the Shōsōin.
July 10, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Interesting article in The New Yorker about scents being all the rage in the museum world these days. Shōsōin: The Show gave visitors the chance to smell ~8th-century Ranjatai 蘭奢待, a piece of agarwood, which is probably the most famous incense in the history of Japan and still extant in the Shōsōin.
Oh no! The coolest part, which was the video, did not seem to upload. Here it is again:
July 9, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Oh no! The coolest part, which was the video, did not seem to upload. Here it is again:
These networks and cultural developments continue to emerge with new objects in new forms for a new age. I was thrilled to get this keychain version from a vending machine capsule toy gachapon (ガチャポン) at the Shōsōin: The Show exbition in Osaka yesterday! Thanks for reading!
July 9, 2025 at 9:17 PM
These networks and cultural developments continue to emerge with new objects in new forms for a new age. I was thrilled to get this keychain version from a vending machine capsule toy gachapon (ガチャポン) at the Shōsōin: The Show exbition in Osaka yesterday! Thanks for reading!
Others, like Flavia Xi Fang, offer a far more complex (and in my view more interesting) narrative of "multicultural origins" involving Persian astronomers, Buddhist monks, Chinese courtesans, and Syriac Christians.
July 9, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Others, like Flavia Xi Fang, offer a far more complex (and in my view more interesting) narrative of "multicultural origins" involving Persian astronomers, Buddhist monks, Chinese courtesans, and Syriac Christians.
So where did these originate? Scholars are divided. Most focus on the clear chronology, which speaks to Chinese origins. In this narrative, the objects simply traveled westward, first to the Islamic world in the 12th-century and then Europe in the 15th. www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/13...
July 9, 2025 at 9:17 PM
So where did these originate? Scholars are divided. Most focus on the clear chronology, which speaks to Chinese origins. In this narrative, the objects simply traveled westward, first to the Islamic world in the 12th-century and then Europe in the 15th. www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/13...
Eventually, similar objects start to appear in Europe. You can see one in this 16th-century painting. The museum notes: "hanging from her belt from a chain that reaches almost all the way down to her feet is a fragrance box, a so-called apple of amber." recherche.smb.museum/detail/86932...
July 9, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Eventually, similar objects start to appear in Europe. You can see one in this 16th-century painting. The museum notes: "hanging from her belt from a chain that reaches almost all the way down to her feet is a fragrance box, a so-called apple of amber." recherche.smb.museum/detail/86932...
But we'd be mistaken to see these objects as purely Buddhist or East Asian. Similar objects existed in the Islamic world. Take this example from the British Museum, described as a hand warmer, but also boasting the same gimbal system.
www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...
www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...
July 9, 2025 at 9:17 PM
But we'd be mistaken to see these objects as purely Buddhist or East Asian. Similar objects existed in the Islamic world. Take this example from the British Museum, described as a hand warmer, but also boasting the same gimbal system.
www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...
www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...
This trend fits within a broader East Asian tradition of material spells, exemplified in spell pillars like this one, something Paul Copp has written about at length. artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/...
July 9, 2025 at 9:17 PM
This trend fits within a broader East Asian tradition of material spells, exemplified in spell pillars like this one, something Paul Copp has written about at length. artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/...
Intriguingly, the term for these objects in Chinese, scented sachet 香囊 appears in some Buddhist texts as well. In one case, a text instructs practitioners to copy out spells, put them in incense sachets, and store them in canisters. It's a fascinating possibility.
doi.org/10.1177/0971...
doi.org/10.1177/0971...
July 9, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Intriguingly, the term for these objects in Chinese, scented sachet 香囊 appears in some Buddhist texts as well. In one case, a text instructs practitioners to copy out spells, put them in incense sachets, and store them in canisters. It's a fascinating possibility.
doi.org/10.1177/0971...
doi.org/10.1177/0971...
These objects seem to have had a variety of uses. At times, they were used to perfume clothes. This usage is described in the Xijing zai, a text whose dating is debated but was being cited in the sixth century, showing that these objects existed by this time. www.mdpi.com/1648582
![Text highlighted from "He also created." Full text reads: "Ding Huan, a skilled craftsman from Chang’an, made an always-full lamp (changman deng). It had extraordinary decoration, sporting seven dragons and five phoenixes which were supported by lotus-shaped platforms resting on stalks. He also created an incense burner which lay on the bedclothes. It was also called the “censer amid the covers”. The technique is original from Fang Feng [a Han-dynasty skilled artisan], whose skills are unprecedented but now lost. It is not until Ding Huan that the technique is made possible again. To make it, Ding Huan fashioned [a series of] mechanically connected rings. The censer could roll in any direction, and yet the central incense-burning chamber could remain level. Thus, one could position it on the bed covers. This is how it acquired its name"](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:sccygdd5kgdqkrixxptv37e3/bafkreid6whi3ijjgpslibr23l52uf66mih3bknz7lceofo2p2sw2v7bhoq@jpeg)
July 9, 2025 at 9:17 PM
These objects seem to have had a variety of uses. At times, they were used to perfume clothes. This usage is described in the Xijing zai, a text whose dating is debated but was being cited in the sixth century, showing that these objects existed by this time. www.mdpi.com/1648582
A number of similar, contemporaneous objects have been found in China, such as this example from the Met. As is clear from the hook at the top, this object would have been hung. The gimbal system would be important to keep the incense upright as the object swayed. www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...
July 9, 2025 at 9:17 PM
A number of similar, contemporaneous objects have been found in China, such as this example from the Met. As is clear from the hook at the top, this object would have been hung. The gimbal system would be important to keep the incense upright as the object swayed. www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...
This post inspired me. I wish we had more medieval art threads here! So I’ll be a part of the solution with one on this amazing silver incense globe from the Shōsōin. shosoin.kunaicho.go.jp/en-US/treasu...
July 9, 2025 at 9:17 PM
This post inspired me. I wish we had more medieval art threads here! So I’ll be a part of the solution with one on this amazing silver incense globe from the Shōsōin. shosoin.kunaicho.go.jp/en-US/treasu...
Veni, vidi, vici.
It was awesome🤩🤩🤩
It was awesome🤩🤩🤩
July 9, 2025 at 5:35 AM
Veni, vidi, vici.
It was awesome🤩🤩🤩
It was awesome🤩🤩🤩
Off to Japan today to see Shōsōin: The Show, a digital, immmersive exhibition on the Shōsōin and its treasures, including a list of 660 objects recorded on this 8th-c. 14 meter scroll discussed and rewritten by these cute doggies. 📜🐶
#ManuscriptMonday #Shosoin
shosoin-the-show.jp/osaka/english/
#ManuscriptMonday #Shosoin
shosoin-the-show.jp/osaka/english/
July 7, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Off to Japan today to see Shōsōin: The Show, a digital, immmersive exhibition on the Shōsōin and its treasures, including a list of 660 objects recorded on this 8th-c. 14 meter scroll discussed and rewritten by these cute doggies. 📜🐶
#ManuscriptMonday #Shosoin
shosoin-the-show.jp/osaka/english/
#ManuscriptMonday #Shosoin
shosoin-the-show.jp/osaka/english/
On vacation in Italy, so here’s a relevant #ManuscriptMonday on the 10,000+ Japanese documents in the Marega Collection of the Vatican. Apostasy oaths like this one were pasted together by village officials into scrolls sometimes reaching 24 meters in length!
www.nijl.ac.jp/pages/marega...
www.nijl.ac.jp/pages/marega...
June 30, 2025 at 7:19 PM
On vacation in Italy, so here’s a relevant #ManuscriptMonday on the 10,000+ Japanese documents in the Marega Collection of the Vatican. Apostasy oaths like this one were pasted together by village officials into scrolls sometimes reaching 24 meters in length!
www.nijl.ac.jp/pages/marega...
www.nijl.ac.jp/pages/marega...
June 23, 2025 at 8:33 PM
A thirteenth-century Japanese picture scroll shows monks deliberating whether to go to the capital to stage a protest. Those in agreement proclaim: “mottomo, mottomo”—that is appropriate, that is appropriate.
(See Adolphson, Gates of Power, 252).
#ManuscriptMonday
colbase.nich.go.jp/collection_i...
(See Adolphson, Gates of Power, 252).
#ManuscriptMonday
colbase.nich.go.jp/collection_i...
June 9, 2025 at 1:30 PM
A thirteenth-century Japanese picture scroll shows monks deliberating whether to go to the capital to stage a protest. Those in agreement proclaim: “mottomo, mottomo”—that is appropriate, that is appropriate.
(See Adolphson, Gates of Power, 252).
#ManuscriptMonday
colbase.nich.go.jp/collection_i...
(See Adolphson, Gates of Power, 252).
#ManuscriptMonday
colbase.nich.go.jp/collection_i...