Cleveland Museum of Art

Bishamonten Ritual Mirror

Date

1000s–1100s

Medium

silvered bronze with incised design

Culture

Japan, Heian period (794–1185)

Department

Japanese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Bishamonten, the Buddhist guardian of the North, appears here with an entourage. Early votive mirrors like this one are called kyōzō , literally “mirrors with images.” One theory is that they appeared along with the development of Shinto-Buddhist combinatory thought, in which specific Buddhist deities were identified with specific kami, or Shinto deities. In this theory, sacred mirrors venerated as proxies for kami came to be incised with images of Buddhist deities. Another idea is that they developed in the context of Esoteric Buddhist ritual. Bishamonten sits on a demon who struggles beneath his weight.

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