Guérin-Boutron’s Mysteries of Japan Advertising Card

For all the new Buddhas in the West posts
follow us on Bluesky & Instagram

By the turn of the 20th century advertising cards were sought-after collectables, often pasted alongside other printed ephemera inside scrap books. The main visual language was the stereotype, and places like Japan were depicted as a mélange of mystery, pagodas, and odd idols.

The mystery figure on the left edge is a Chinese puppeteer; distinctions between China and Japan often dissolved under the umbrella of “the Orient.” Such imagery had circulated in Europe since the late 18th century through southern Chinese export paintings depicting popular Chinese occupations.

Guérin-Boutron was a luxury Parisian chocolatier and early adopter of chromolithographed trade cards, creating this set of worldwide nations and cities in the early 1900s.The printer, Vieillemard Fils & Cie, was a premier lithographer for major French trade card producers of the era.

The figure in the lower right corner is a crude rendering of a seated buddha. Pronounced ethnic facial features and flowing silk garments were sometimes used to signify “authentic” Asian religions iconography.

The circular insert depicts an uncommon two-story pagoda known as the Many Treasures Pagoda (tahōtō 多宝塔) described in the Lotus Sutra. This illustration shows the one built at Hachiman Shrine which was destroyed in 1870, several decades before this card was issued.

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

For Related Buddhas in the West Posts Featuring Lithography:

For the Most Recent Buddhas in the West Posts:

P.A. Johnston and Theodor Hoffmann’s Tibetan “Devil Dancers” Postcard

For all the new Buddhas in the West posts
follow us on Bluesky & Instagram

Tibetan ritual cham dances were often called “Devil Dances” by Western scholars and travelers through the turn of the 20th century. Dressed in the ceremonial regalia of masked dance, performing monks became a popular visual motif for representing Tibetan Buddhism.

Traditionally traced to the semi-legendary 8th century tantric Buddhist Padmasambhava, ritual dances are usually held as part of larger religious festivals. Performers portray a range of figures from protector deities and heroes to comic characters.

The photograph, retouched considerably here, was taken by P.A. Johnston and Theodor Hoffmann who opened a studio in Calcutta in 1882 and Darjeeling in 1890. This postcard, likely published in the 1920s, was printed in the epicenter of Asian postcard production at the time, Japan.

The stag mask recalls a dance symbolizing the repulsion of negative forces and the consecration of surrounding space for spiritual practice. One source claims this photo was taken in Bhutia Busty, a village in the Darjeeling district known for its cham performances at the local monastery.

Another ritual performer, possibly a young boy, wears a skeleton mask with a blood-red suit sewn with white skeleton bones. Skeleton dancers can represent the impermanence of phenomena and sometimes play a semi-comedic role.

The central figure is representative of the Black Hat dance, sometimes seen as a celebration for the death of Langdarma, an enemy of Buddhism. For an introductory overview of Tibetan cham, see Ellen Pearlman, Tibetan Sacred Dance: A Journey into the Religious and Folk Traditions.

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

For Related Buddhas in the West Posts Featuring Ritual Dance:

For the Most Recent Buddhas in the West Posts:

Benjamin Kilburn’s Buddhist Pilgrims Stereoview

For all the new Buddhas in the West posts
follow us on Bluesky & Instagram

The earliest stereo photographs of Japan were taken in 1859, but it was not until the late 1890s when publishers started to take a genuine commercial interest in the country. In 1901 Benjamin Kilburn released a beautiful series of views of Japan where Buddhism played a minor role.

By 1900, Kilburn was one of the world’s largest producers and distributors of stereoviews, traveling extensively to build his portfolio. Yet, despite Kilburn’s name printed on the back of each mount, the Japanese series was not photographed by him; the photographer remains unknown.

This view is captioned, “Buddhist Priests on a Pilgrimage, Japan,” but we have no precise information regarding the location. The negative number (13978) places this image in a series taken around Mt. Fuji, thus it may be somewhere on the pilgrimage path to the sacred mountain.

The sedge hats, bags, and white clothes all signal the activity of a religious pilgrimage. Views such as this were considered educational as much as they were entertaining and thus reflected a visual tradition of anthropological photography by showing native peoples in religious attire.

For more on the religious history of mountains in Japan, see the edited volume, Defining Shugendō: Critical Studies on Japanese Mountain Religion (2020).

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

For Related Buddhas in the West Posts Featuring Stereoviews:

For the Most Recent Buddhas in the West Posts:

Captured in Chinatown (1935) Production Photograph

For all the new Buddhas in the West posts
follow us on Bluesky & Instagram

Two figures seen here in the shadows emerged in the 1920s and 30s as part of the cinematic shorthand for American Chinatowns. One, the murderous hatchet man, can be seen in the back alley, while other is seen peering out the curio shop window: an icon of a buddha.

This film, Captured in Chinatown, is a melodrama from 1935 that portrays a Romeo and Juliet style love story and a growing war between two Chinatown tongs. As Philippa Gates suggests, it also shows the promise of American assimilation provided outdated Chinese ways are abandoned.

While the American-born Chinese lovers embrace American life, their immigrant parents remain stuck in petty and violent family feuds. Unlike many major Hollywood productions, this B film cast Asian American actors in all of the leading Chinese roles.

One of the main sets includes the interior of Lieu Ling Importers which displays a Buddhist statue in the window, presumably for sale. There is also a different Buddhist shrine inside the shop where the female Chinese lead prays to Amitābha Buddha, invoking him with, “Amituofo.”

The film ends with the two lovers reunited, thanking the revered “Most High One” for ending the feud. For more on the portrayal of Chinatown in films of this era, see Philippa Gates, Criminalization/Assimilation: Chinese/Americans and Chinatowns in Classical Hollywood Film (2019).

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

For Related Buddhas in the West Posts Featuring Films:

For the Most Recent Buddhas in the West Posts:

Buddhist Revivalist Hikkaduwe Sumangala Postcard

For all the new Buddhas in the West posts
follow us on Bluesky & Instagram

Identified as a “Buddhist High Priest” and shown holding an open book, the caption and image both suggest a highly learned Sinhalese monk. Although anonymous, we can identify him as one of the pioneers of the Buddhist revivalist movement in the 19th century, Hikkaduwe Sumangala.

Sumangala was the head priest of Adam’s Peak, a position of great prestige, and a friend to many Western Orientalist scholars Theosophists Henry Steel Olcott and Helena Blavatsky considered Sumangala, “the most learned of all the representatives of his faith.”

The photograph was taken in the 1890s by the first private studio to sell postcards in Sri Lanka, A. W. Plâté & Co. The previous owner of the card used it to take travel notes, detailing the “bright yellow” color of monks’ robes and their frequent use of palm leaf fans and umbrellas.

Considered an esteemed scholar of Buddhism, Sumangala formally certified the accuracy of Olcott’s Buddhist Catechism in 1881, a book that presented Buddhism as both scientific and rational, as opposed to “religious.”

Sumangala pushed back against Olcott’s reading of a persisting soul, however, which was removed from his book. For more on the interaction of Sumangala and Olcott, see Julie Chajes, “Orientalist Aggregates: Theosophical Buddhism Between Innovation and Tradition” (2021).

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

For Related Buddhas in the West Posts Featuring Buddhist Monk:

For the Most Recent Buddhas in the West Posts:

Postcard of Guanyin at Chicago’s Ling Long Chinese Museum

For all the new Buddhas in the West posts
follow us on Bluesky & Instagram

The Ling Long Chinese Museum in Chicago opened prior to the 1933 World’s Fair hoping to draw visitors and help erase the popular view that US Chinatowns were “immoral and dangerous.” The museum housed a large altar in the rear of the main arcade to enshrine an icon of Guanyin.

The was the first American museum owned and operated by Chinese immigrants. One of the main attractions were a series of twenty-four dioramas flanking the “shrine hall” that displayed historical stories and legends from China’s past.

Chicago’s Curt Teich & Co. spearheaded new technology to print postcards in hyperreal colors in 1931, starting the “linen card” era that ran through World War II. Based on production numbers, we know this card was first published for the Ling Long Museum in 1933, the year it first opened.

The Guanyin altar was set-up during the period of Chinese Exclusion when many Chinatown temples across the US were closing. Even the shrine seen here displays altar arrangements not commonly seen, such as including lion statuettes.

The museum was open through the 1970s before changing over to a Chinese restaurant. Many items were moved to the Chinese-American Museum of Chicago, but a fire in 2008 destroyed much of the collection, including most of the original dioramas; the Guanyin image is presumed lost.

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

For Related Buddhas in the West Posts Featuring the United States:

For the Most Recent Buddhas in the West Posts:

Nikko’s Yashamon “Demon Gate” Photograph

For all the new Buddhas in the West posts
follow us on Bluesky & Instagram

The Taiyū-in Shrine, in idyllic Nikko, is the final resting place of shōgun Tokugawa Iemitsu, one of the “Great Unifiers” of Japan. The compound is punctuated by several ornate gate houses, including the one here known as Yashamon for the Buddhist guardian figures protecting it.

Completed in 1653, Iemitsu’s mausoleum blends both Shinto and Buddhist architectural styles and elements. The Yashamon is the third gate within the compound and houses four icons of weapon-wielding yakṣa (J. yasha) who have history in Buddhist Asia as temple guardians.

This photograph was taken in the late 1880s or 1890s and most likely reflects one of the many Japanese-owned photography studios that catered to foreign visitors.

Not as grand or sophisticated as Nikko’s main attraction, Tōshō-gū, the Taiyū-in Shrine still displays highly skilled craftsmanship.Looking closely, the Yashamon is covered with delicately carved peonies (painted light blue on the photo), and thus is also called Botanmon, or the Peony Gate.

As one walks through Taiyū-in Shrine, the Yashamon is first seen atop a flight of steps, but if you cross the threshold and turn around, two yakṣa peer back at you. The blue figure on the left is Umarokya holding a bow and arrow.

The fierce white-skinned yakṣa on the right is Kendara who carries a weapon on his shoulder.Due to the warrior nature of these images another name for this gate was sometimes used in turn-of-the-century guidebooks: the Demon Gate.

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

For Related Buddhas in the West Posts Featuring the Buddhist Temples:

For the Most Recent Buddhas in the West Posts:

Ueda’s Hyōgo Daibutsu at Kobe Postcard

For all the new Buddhas in the West posts
follow us on Bluesky & Instagram

Nōfuku-ji, a Buddhist temple in the port city of Kobe, Japan, was reportedly founded by the monk Saichō in 805. A thousand years later, the colossal Hyōgo Daibutsu was built on temple grounds in 1891, but the statue did not survive beyond World War II.

Commissioned by a local paper merchant, the bronze icon stood just under 15 meters (48 ft.) in height, but remained exposed and uncovered by a shrine hall. The Hyōgo Daibutsu represented Vairocana Buddha, the same figure enshrined at Tōdai-ji, in the ancient capital of Nara.

Guidebooks in the early 20th century refer to Nōfuku-ji as a worthy tourist destination when traveling through Kobe. Equally, Japanese postcard companies often used imagery of the Hyōgo Daibutsu; here we see a card made by Ueda Photo, one of the largest publishers during the late Meiji era.

Like the Kamakura Daibutsu, the outdoor setting allowed visitors an easy opportunity to have photographs taken in front of the colossal statue.

The statue was dismantled under the Ordinance on the Collection of Metals issued as part of Japanese war efforts during WWII. In 1991, one hundred years after the original was complete, a new Hyōgo Daibutsu was consecrated and remains today at Nōfuku-ji.

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

For Related Buddhas in the West Posts Featuring the Hyōgo Daibutsu:

For the Most Recent Buddhas in the West Posts:

William Hurd’s “Idol Buddu” Engraving

For all the new Buddhas in the West posts
follow us on Bluesky & Instagram

Writing in 1790, William Hurd noted the icons of Ceylon were “fantastic and monstrous,” while one, “formed like a giant,” was called “Buddu.” The accompanying engraving of the Buddha shows a curious bearded figure with a tall crown and sword held aloft in his right hand.

Hurd’s engraving was not original, it was copied from Bernard Picart’s widely circulated Ceremonies and Religious Customs published between 1723–1743. The sword, unexpected for a buddha’s iconography, is not addressed in Picart’s text, moreover, we now know the image has a non-Buddhist origin.

Key elements of the iconography are seen in an engraving from documents prepared by Joris van Spilbergen, member of the first Dutch embassy to Ceylon in 1602. According to Van Spilbergen, the image was part of King Vimaladharmasūriya’s “coat of arms,” and thus depicted the Ceylonese royalty.

The king’s image with crown and sword were reprinted in Theodor de Bry’s Petit Voyages in 1605, but by the following century, possibly under the editorial hand of Picart, the image was treated as the Buddha. Supplicants with offerings were added to the scene to exemplify a religious setting.

Despite Hurd’s caption citing the “ceremonies of adoration paid to the idol Buddu,” the illustration reflects much of the confusion over Buddhism at the time. The original engraving made for Van Spilbergen, held by the Rijksmuseum, can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/msxm74bu.

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

For Related Buddhas in the West Posts Featuring Sri Lanka:

For the Most Recent Buddhas in the West Posts:

L’Illustration Photographs of Qiongzhu Temple

For all the new Buddhas in the West posts
follow us on Bluesky & Instagram

Located in the mountains of Yunnan, China, the Qiongzhu Temple (Qiongzhu si 筇竹寺) houses a collection of fantastic Buddhist statues. This Thousand-Armed Guanyin icon is surrounded by over 200 arhat disciples, comprising part of a Five Hundred Arhat collection over a century old.

While the temple was founded in the 13th century, a devastating fire allowed major reconstruction and expansion projects under the Qing Emperor Guangxu. Three new buildings, completed in the 1880s, were used to for housing newly commissioned clay statues of the Five Hundred Arhats.

The photos seen here were printed in L’Illustration, reputedly the first international illustrated magazine published out of Paris. This issue was released in December 1927, containing what the editor believed were otherwise unpublished photographs of Qiongzhu Temple.

The French text cites the Samaññaphala Sutta to give context to the arhats, who are the Awakened disciples of the Buddha. In East Asian, the arhats are often shown as having curious physical characteristics; here we can spot one arhat with a long, craning arm reaching up to hold the moon.

In addition to the main hall, the arhat statues were further divided between two halls on temple grounds, each constructed with three rows of shelving to hold the numerous icons. Each painted statue is about one meter in height.

Records reveal the images were made by an artist from Sichuan, Li Guangxiu, who along with several assistants crafted the arhat icons over a period of seven years (1883-1890).

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

For Related Buddhas in the West Posts Featuring Guanyin:

For the Most Recent Buddhas in the West Posts: